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/1P 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 

VARIOUS SCENES AND EVENTS 
IN THE LIFE OF HER MAJESTY 



BY 



GLADYS E. LOCKE, M.A. 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN, FRENCH ^ COMPANY 

1913 



3^3 



3^^ 



copybight, 1913 
Sheeman, Fkench &" Company 



©CI,A85870i 



'COMMENDACION" TO QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Syns theise and many histories 

Ar written of by men 
Of dyverse kyndes of properties 

By dyverse women then, 
I praye what end such happ shoulde fall, 
I knowe oone such doth pass them all 
That ever was, or ever shall. 
And they were all alyve agayne, 
I praye what prayse deserveyth she 
If in our Courte her highness be? 
Well, you shall know no more of me: 
God save her life! Amen. 

— By a contemporary. 
(In Arber's "An English Garner.") 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I Personal Descriptions .... 1 
II Birth and Early Years .... 8 

III The Imprisonment of the Princess 

Elizabeth 23 

IV The Further Imprisonment of the 

Princess 36 

V The Accession of Queen Elizabeth 55 
VI The Royal Progress on the Day Be- 
fore the Coronation .... 63 

VII The Coronation . . . . . .71 

VIII The Reception to Queen Elizabeth 

AT Cambridge University ... 76 
IX Anecdotes of the Queen and Her 

Courtiers 84< 

X Queen Elizabeth at Oxford . . .116 

XI Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart 123 

XII Her Majesty's Suitors . . . .142 

XIII Marriage Negotiations with the 

Duke of Alen^on . . . . . . 166 

XIV The Condemnation of the Queen of 

Scots 194 

XV " The Invincible Armada "... 215 

XVI Queen Elizabeth Revisits Oxford . 233 

XVII The Private Life of the Queen . . 241 

XVIII The Fall of Essex 250 

XIX " The Setting of the Western Lu- 
minary " ........ 270 



I 

PERSONAL DESCRIPTIONS 

INTRODUCTORY 

Queen Elizabeth was of majestic and graceful 
form, a little above the medium height, " neither 
too high nor too low," as she herself naively re- 
marked. She had hair of a colour between pale 
auburn and yellow, black eyes, which were " beau- 
tiful and lively," a fair, clear complexion, a Roman 
nose, a small mouth with thin, firmly set lips, and 
a forehead broad and high. Her face was striking 
and commanding rather than delicately beautiful, 
the countenance of one bom to rule. She pos- 
sessed many personal attractions and no one could 
be more charming and gracious upon occasion than 
this mighty Princess of the Royal House of Tudor, 
with that slow, sweet smile of hers and her quick, 
ever-ready wit. 

Sir Francis Bacon says, " She was tall of 
stature, of comely limbs, and excellent feature in 
her countenance; majesty sat under veil of sweet- 
ness, and her health was sound and prosperous." 

There were a great many portraits painted of 
her both as Princess and as Queen. In her pic- 
tures, Elizabeth was fond of displaying her slen- 

1 



a QUEEN ELIZABETH 

der, delicate hands, of which she was very proud. 
One of the best known portraits is the so-called 
" Rainbow Picture " by Zucchero. In this her 
slim, tapering fingers are free from rings, but her 
costume and her coiffure are most elaborate. Her 
tightly-curled hair is bedecked with jewels and 
surmounted by a crown, and the stiffly starched 
ruff is conspicuous. Indeed, the Queen's one ex- 
travagance consisted in a lavish manner of dress- 
ing. At the time of her death there were said to 
be three thousand gowns in her wardrobe, for she 
disliked to part with any of them, although she 
had worn some only once or twice. 

Before her accession to the throne, however, as 
her -position was uncertain and her life often in 
danger, she assumed a manner of dressing, plain 
and simple in the extreme, as seemed fitting to 
her condition. And, in early life, her manner 
was marked by a demureness that gained for her 
the title of " my sweetest sister Temperance " 
from her little brother. King Edward VI, to whom 
she was tenderly attached. Upon becoming 
Queen, she allowed her taste for elaborate costumes 
^and rich jewels full play, for she was always fond 
of arousing admiration in her subjects, and of 
outshining the ladies of her Court in splendour 
of apparel. No one before or since has excelled 
" Good Queen Bess," as she was affectionately 
called, in magnificence of attire and almost fan- 
tastic display of jewels. 

But, in contrast to this feminine love of show, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 3 

Elizabeth possessed remarkable mental endow- 
ments. Devoted from her earhest years to study, ' 
and particularly to history, she became the ablest 
and greatest woman England has ever had. Her 
understanding of the problems of European poH- 
tics was noteworthy. In the Council Chamber she 
was distiQguished for sound common sense, great 
shrewdness, and clear insight. Her proficiency 
in languages was extraordinary. She was an ex- 
cellent LatiQ scholar and could converse in that 
language with rare facihty, and was able to de- 
liver speeches in it ex tempore, fluently, and at 
great length. She spoke and wrote French, 
ItaHan, Spanish and Flemish with the same ease 
as her native English. She also studied Greek 
extensively, and could converse in it. She learned 
very readily, and, when only twelve years old, 
had made considerable progress in the sciences, 
geography, mathematics and astronomy. 

" She was of admirable beauty and well deserv- 
ing a Crown, of a modest gravity, excellent wit, 
royal soul, happy memory, and indefatigably given 
to the study of learning; insomuch, a-s before she 
was seventeen years of age, she understood well 
the Latin, French and ItaHan tongues and had 
an indifferent knowledge of Greek. Neither did 
she neglect music so far as became a Princess, 
being able to sing sweetly and play handsomely 
on the lute," writes Camden, the contemporary 
historian of her reign. 

Elizabeth was always fond of poetry and com- 



4 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

posed some sonnets and other verses, which are 
altogether worthy of mention. In addition, she 
translated some poems from the French, and Sal- 
lust's " De Bello Jugurthino " from the Latin ; 
also a play of Euripides and two orations of Isoc- 
rates from Greek into Latin. Further, she 
wrote a comment on Plato, and translated a dia- 
logue of Xenophon from Greek into English. In 
159S, when she was sixty years old. Her Majesty 
found time, in the midst of her State duties, to 
translate from the Latin into smooth and very 
elegant English the five books of Boethius' " Con- 
solations of Philosophy," and in 1598 the greater 
part of Horace's " De Arte Poetica," and a little 
treatise by Plutarch, called " De Curiositate." 
Almost the whole of these manuscripts are in the 
Queen's own clear and beautiful handwriting, 
which was so admired by her tutors. Roger 
Ascham, the famous classical scholar, first tutor, 
and later, Latin Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, 
says that if Her Highness had had the leisure to 
pursue her studies, her learning would have been 
astounding. He considered that she possessed 
extraordinary abilities for acquiring and retain- 
ing knowledge. 

Sir Richard Baker pays this eulogy to " the 
heroine of the British throne " : " The beauty of 
her mind was most admirable, which she was par- 
ticularly happy in expressing both by speech and 
writing. If a collection could be made of her 
apothegms and her extemporal orations, it would 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 5 

certainly excel anything extant on that head." 
Fuller offers an interesting description of the 
Maiden Queen : " She was of person tall, of hair 
and complexion fair ; well favoured but high nosed, 
of limbs and features neat, of a stately and majestic 
deportment. She had a piercing eye, wherewith 
she used to touch what metal strangers were made 
of that came into her presence. But, as she 
counted it a pleasant conquest with her majestic 
look to dash strangers out of countenance, so 
was she merciful in pursuing those whom she over- 
came; and would comfort them with her smiles, if 
perceiving towardliness and an ingenuous modesty 
in them. She much affected rich and costly ap- 
parel, and, if ever jewels had just cause to be 
proud, it was with her wearing them." 

Speed says : " Her royal actions and princely 
qualities of mind were seated in such a body for 
state, stature, beauty and majesty, as best be- 
fitted an Empress." 

Speed also relates how Her Majesty in 1597, 
long after the time when she had the leisure to de- 
vote to persistent and continued study, completely 
worsted the Polish Ambassador in a lengthy Latin 
debate. Says our chronicler, " Lion-like rising, she 
daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately 
port and majestic departure than with the tartness 
of her princely cheek; and turning to the train 
of her attendants, thus said : ' God's death, my 
Lords, I have been enforced this day to scour up 
my old Latin that hath long lain rusting.' " 



6 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Thomas Fiiller writes further : " She was well 
skilled in the Queen-craft, and by her policy and 
prosperity she was much beloved by her people; 
insomuch, that since it hath been said, ' that Queen 
Elizabeth might lawfully do that which King 
James might not.' For, although the laws were 
equally the rule to them both, yet her popularity 
sugared many bitter things, her subjects thanking 
her for taking those taxes which they refused 
to pay her successor." 

The carriage of the " Virgin Queen " was 
stately and dignified, and her appearances in 
public, splendidly attired, and accompanied by 
the Lords and Ladies of her Court, never failed to 
evoke the warmest enthusiasm from her loyal sub- 
jects. To her people she was always aifable, and 
graciously appreciative of the pageants prepared 
by them in her honour. Well did she understand 
the heart of the English people, and upon their 
love and loyalty rested the strength of her throne 
which was not to be shaken by civil war or foreign 
invasion. And if England's Elizabeth occasion- 
ally gave way to outbursts of royal wrath which 
plainly showed her to be the daughter of Henry 
VHI, to her subjects at large she invariably 
presented only the greatest and best in her na- 
ture, working unceasingly and with marked suc- 
cess for the advancement and glory of her coun- 
try. She was the living embodiment of the grow- 
ing greatness of England and was both beloved and 
feared by her subjects, ruling mightily, but wisely, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 7 

and inspiring in her people fervent patriotism 
and chivalrous devotion to herself. Her courage, 
in all crises, and her vigourous will were alike in- 
domitable; in the words of one of her ministers, 
" What she wills, she wills." She was, moreover, 
a daring horsewoman, an excellent shot, a graceful 
dancer, and a great lover of dramatic entertain- 
ments and gorgeous pageants. 

Camden pays the mighty English Queen this 
further tribute : " A woman, and, if that be not 
enough, an unmarried virgin, destitute of all help 
of parents, brethren, husband, beset with divers 
nations, her mortal enemies, while the Pope 
fretted, the Spaniard threatened; and all her 
neighbour Princes, as many as had sworn to 
Popery, raged round about her, held the most 
stout and warlike nation of the English four and 
forty years and upwards, not only in awe and duty, 
but even in peace also, and, which is most of all, in 
the true Worship of God." 



n 

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS 

On Sunday, September 7, 1533, between three 
and four o'clock in the afternoon, in the Royal 
Palace at Greenwich, was bom the future illus- 
trious Queen of England, the daughter of Henry 
VIII, and Anne Boleyn. Bells were rung, the Te 
Deum sung in the churches, and great prepara- 
tions made for the christening of the infant Prin- 
cess. The Duke of Norfolk came home for the 
ceremony, which took place on the following 
Wednesday. 

By order of the King, the Mayor of London, 
with the Aldermen, forty of the chief citizens, and 
a throng of Lords and gentlemen, came up the 
river to Greenwich on the appointed day. 

The christening was to take place at two 
o'clock, and, at precisely one, the Mayor and his 
brethren, clad in scarlet robes, stepped into their 
barges and were quickly rowed to Greenwich. 

The King's Palace and Grey Friars' Church, 
where the ceremony was to be performed, were 
richly hung with arras and cloth of gold. The 
entire road from the Royal dwelling to the church 
was strewn with green reeds. The font in the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 9 

middle of the church, covered with costly velvet, 
was of silver and three steps high. Over the font 
hung a canopy of crimson satin, fringed with gold. 

At two o'clock, the infant Princess, the uncon- 
scious cause of all this pomp and splendour was 
borne with great ceremony from the Palace to 
the church. At the head of the long procession 
marched the forty citizens of London, two by two, 
next came the gentlemen and Chaplains, the Alder- 
men and Mayor, then the King's Council, the King's 
Chaplains, the Barons, Bishops and Earls. The 
Earl of Essex bore the covered gilt basins, the 
Marquis of Exeter a taper of virgin wax, and the 
Marquis of Dorset carried the salt. Lady Mary 
of Norfolk bore the chrisom, made of stone set 
with pearls. After her proceeded the Dowager 
Duchess of Norfolk, bearing the Royal infant, 
wrapped in a mantle of purple velvet, with a long 
train furred with ermine. The Duke of Norfolk, 
holding the Marshal's rod, walked on the right 
side of the Duchess, while the Duke- of Suffolk 
went on the left. The Countess of Kent carried 
the long train of the baby Princess, while between 
the Countess and the child walked the Earl of 
Wiltshire and the Earl of Derby, supporting the 
train on the left and right. Four other Lords 
bore a canopy of crimson velvet over the Princess. 

In this order, the imposing procession reached 
the church door, where it was met by the Bishop 
of London with other ecclesiastics, all in gorgeous 
State-array, and the sacrament was begun. 



10 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who performed 
the ceremony, was also god-father, while the Dow- 
ager Duchess of Norfolk and the Dowager 
Marchioness of Dorset were the godmothers. 
The Royal infant was given the name of her pa- 
ternal grandmother, Elizabeth of York. 

After the child had been carried to the font 
and solemnly christened, the Garter-King-at- 
Arms cried, " God of his infinite goodness send a 
prosperous life and long to the high and mighty 
Princess of England, Elizabeth 1" 

Then the trumpet blew loudly, and the Princess 
was brought to the altar and confirmed ; after 
which, the Archbishop presented a standing cup 
of gold, as his gift to the daughter of the King. 
The Duchess of Norfolk gave a cup of gold, 
fretted with pearls, and the Marchioness of Exeter 
gave three gilt bowls. 

After a solemn banquet, the procession returned 
to the Court in the same order as before, with the 
addition of four other Nobles who followed the 
Royal Elizabeth, bearing the costly presents that 
had been given her. The splendid retinue ac- 
companied the child to the door of Queen Anne's 
apartments, where the King met it and gave his 
thanks for the honours paid his youthful daugh- 
ter. 

Shortly after this, Henry, acceding to the 
wishes of the Queen, had an Act of Parliament 
passed, whereby Elizabeth was solemnly recog- 
nized as the heir to the Throne, and the title of 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 11 

Princess of Wales was conferred upon her.* 
Thus the claims of the Princess Mary, the daugh- 
ter of the King by his first wife, Katherine of 
Aragon, were abruptly set aside. 

A Royal residence was then provided for the 
little Princess and her attendants. Soon after, 
the King entered into negotiations for a marriage 
between her and the Duke of Angouleme, third 
son of the French Monarch. But Henry added so 
many stipulations to the marriage treaty that the 
affair came to naught. 

The brilliant career of the young Princess of 
Wales, which had opened amid such pomp and 
splendour, was rudely checked, before she was 
quite three years old, by the tragic death of her 
mother. 

Rapid as had been Anne Boleyn's rise from the 
post of maid of honour to Katherine of Aragon 
to the exalted position of Queen of England, still 
more rapid was her disgrace and dreadful fall 
from the lofty pinnacle to which she had been 
raised by the hand of her capricious Lord, the 
King. She was accused of misconduct and 
treason, and, after a judicial farce, hardly worthy 
the name of trial, went to the scaffold, and, protest- 
ing her innocence to the last, died with queenly 
dignity. 

Henry's resentment against the unfortunate 
Anne Boleyn and his persistent disbelief in her 

* This title was somewhat irregular and could only be pre- 
sumptive, as Henry still hoped for a son by Anne. 



12 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

innocence, had been strengthened by his passion 
for Jane Seymour, one of Anne's own ladies-in- 
waiting, whom he married on the very day after 
the execution. The King had an Act of Parlia- 
ment passed annulling his marriage with Anne, 
and rendering the little Elizabeth illegitimate and 
incapable of inheriting the Crown. 

When a son, Edward, was bom later to the 
Royal pair, he was hailed as the heir to the Throne. 
The Princess Elizabeth, then four years old, 
borne in the arms of the Earl of Hertford, car- 
ried the chrisom to the splendid christening which 
was soon followed by the death of the new Queen. 

The little Princess was a child of such remarka- 
ble promise and such pleasing manners that her 
father softened toward her, and allowed her to be 
brought up with the young scion of the Royal 
House. The neglected child of Anne Boleyn, far 
from cherishing feelings of envy against the little 
usurper of her royal privileges, conceived a very 
tender affection for him, which he heartily re- 
turned. On his second birthday she presented 
him with a cambric shirt, worked by her baby 
hands. 

Elizabeth and Edward were brought up in the 
Protestant faith, while the elder sister, Mary, 
was a strict Catholic, as her mother had been. 
The winning manners and endearing caresses of 
the little Princess caused even Mary, who, at first, 
felt bitter jealousy toward the child of her 
mother's rival, to warm toward her. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 13 

The tutors of Elizabeth were very enthusiastic 
in their praises of her. John Aylmer, her first 
tutor, said that he learned more of her every day 
than she of him. " I teach her words," he writes, 
" and she teacheth me things. I teach her tongues 
to speak, and her modesty and maidenly life 
teacheth me words to do. For I think she is 
the best inclined and disposed of any in all Eu- 
rope." 

Her Italian teacher, Castiglione, says : " I 
find in her two qualities which are never lightly 
yokefellows in one woman; which are a singular 
wit and a marvellous meek stomach." 

When Elizabeth and Edward were separated in 
1546 by the removal of the former to Enfield and 
the latter to Hertford, the young Prince was so 
grieved that she wrote to him, begging him to be 
comforted and to keep up a correspondence with 
her. 

Sir Robert Naunton, speaking later of the af- 
fection between the two younger children of Henry 
VIII writes : " Besides the consideration of blood, 
there was between these two Princes, a concurrency 
and a sympathy in their natures and affections, 
together with the celestial bond, conformity in re- 
ligion, which made them one and friends, for the 
King called her his sweetest and dearest sister, and 
was scarce his own man, she being absent, which 
was not so between him and the Lady Mary." 

It is said that Queen Elizabeth throughout her 
life, whenever she tried a new pen, customarily 



14 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

wrote the name of Edward, her dearly loved 
brother. 

The young Princess found such favour in the 
eyes of Anne of Cleves, her father's fourth wife, 
that Anne declared "she should esteem it a greater 
happiness to be mother of Elizabeth than Queen 
of England." After Henry and this new wife 
had been divorced by mutual agreement, the King 
granted Anne's request, seconded by the pleading 
of his daughter, that the Princess should visit her 
frequently. 

Elizabeth was treated with equal affection and 
consideration by her next step-mother, Katherine 
Howard, own cousin to Anne Boleyn. At all the 
banquets and fetes in honour of her marriage, 
Katherine insisted that Elizabeth be seated by her 
side and called her " cousin." It was also her in- 
tention to ask the King to have that Act of Par- 
liament repealed, which had rendered the Princess 
incapable of inheriting the Crown. Elizabeth, 
however, while she manifested a loving regard for 
her partial young step-mother, spent as much time 
as her father would allow, with Anne of Cleves, 
for whom she always showed a deep and sincere 
affection. Indeed, she ever remained constantly 
faithful throughout her life to the friends of her 
youth, aiding and advancing them to the best of 
her power and their own abilities. 

After the disgrace and execution of Katherine 
Howard, the Princess Elizabeth lived for a time 
with her sister, Mary, at Havering Bower. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 15 

On the marriage of King Henry to Katherine 
Parr, a woman of strong character and rare 
scholarship, Elizabeth and Mary took their proper 
places in the Royal household. The younger Prin- 
cess was ten years old at this time. The new 
Queen showed a motherly interest in both her step- 
daughters, but particularly in the little EHza- 
beth, whose studies she personally directed and 
encouraged. 

It was upon history that the young Princess 
bent her thoughts in particular, and spent three 
hours of each day in the pursuit of this study, 
in which she began to interest herself when only 
five years old. 

She read works on this subject in all languages, 
and used to give especial attention toi the lives of 
the rulers. She was studying to be a worthy 
Queen, for, from her earliest youth, the glittering 
vision of the Crown shone before her eyes, to at- 
tain which was the aim and object of her life. 
And those who were brought in personal contact 
with her said that Heaven in endowing her with 
such remarkable gifts certainly destined her for 
some high office. 

During the last illness of the King, Elizabeth 
and Edward again resided together and their af- 
fection for each other grew even stronger. When 
their father's death was announced to them, they 
burst into such passionate tears that all those 
present were deeply moved, and Hey wood writes, 
" Never was sorrow more sweetly set forth, their 



16 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

faces seeming rather to beautify their sorrow than 
their sorrow to cloud the beauty of their faces." 

By the conditions of Henry's will, sanctioned 
by Parliament, the Crown was to pass to Edward, 
then to Mary, if he died without heirs, and, in 
default of heirs to Mary, to Elizabeth, and from 
her to the children of their father's younger sister, 
Mary, Duchess of Suffolk. Lady Jane Grey was 
the oldest of these children. And so, by the tardy 
justice of her father, the daughter of Anne Boleyn 
was restored to her proper rank as Royal Prin- 
cess and reversionary heiress to the Throne. She 
was given an income of three thousand pounds a 
year and a marriage portion of ten thousand 
pounds, provided her marriage was approved by 
King Edward and his Council, otherwise she would 
lose her dowry. 

The ambitious Lord Admiral Seymour, brother 
to the Protector Somerset and uncle to the young 
King, made a daring, but unsuccessful attempt to 
unite himself in marriage to the fourteen year 
old Princess Elizabeth, exactly a month after the 
death of Henry VHI. 

Upon Her Highness' refusal Seymour promptly 
married his former fiancee, Katherine Parr, the 
Queen Dowager, who had been appointed the 
guardian of Elizabeth and with whom the Princess 
was then living. 

Mary and Elizabeth were both displeased at 
their step-mother's hasty marriage, which seemed 
derogatory to their father's memory, but Eliza- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 17 

beth continued for a year, at least, to reside with 
Katherine Parr. Here she was treated with the 
royal dignity befitting the sister of the King and 
was attended by a retinue of ladies and officers of 
State. 

Seymour, a man of unprincipled character and 
boundless ambition, now attempted to obtain a 
hold upon his wife's young Royal ward by indecor- 
ous romping and undue familiarity. Katherine 
prevented any mischief arising from these evil 
designs, fostered by ambition, by insisting that 
the young Princess and her establishment remove 
from the house. Elizabeth then lived chiefly at 
Hatfield and Ashbridge. 

Katherine Parr, however, remained her faithful 
friend and guide until her death, writing to her 
frequently in a friendly and affectionate manner. 
In her will she left her half her jewels and a 
heavy chain of gold, admonishing her to cultivate 
the great qualities bestowed on her by God and 
strive to improve them, for she believed she was 
destined by Heaven to be Queen of England. 

After the death of Katherine, Seymour again 
paid his addresses to Princess Elizabeth. These 
advances were seconded by Mrs. Katherine Ashley, 
Her Highness' governess, and by other officials of 
her household, who favoured the Lord Admiral 
for their own interests. These intriguing persons 
were constantly praising Seymour to their fifteen 
year old mistress, who had no disinterested woman 
friend or relation to advise her at that critical 



18 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

period. Seymour, although twenty years her 
senior, was a handsome man of engaging manners, 
and the youthful Princess, while she did not see or 
directly correspond with him after the death of 
Queen Katherine, received his messages and 
dropped some encouraging remarks regarding him. 
One of Elizabeth's ladies, however, so constantly 
and persistently importuned her to marry the 
Admiral that the Princess, after a vain attempt 
to silence her, threatened " to have her thrust out 
of her presence if she did not desist." 

Seymour's bold project of marrying the King's 
youngest sister and his daring intrigues to over- 
throw the Regency and get the power into his 
own hands, brought him to the scaffold in March, 
1549. The principal people in the household of 
the Princess were arrested and strictly examined 
by the Council to see how far they and their Mis- 
tress were involved in the schemes of Seymour. 
For a time, Elizabeth was treated as a prisoner 
of State and detained at Hatfield, under the charge 
of Sir Robert Tyrwhit. When the execution of 
the Admiral was reported to the Princess by spies 
of the Council, who were eager to see if she would 
betray any emotion, she said, calmly, " This day 
died a man with much wit and very little judg- 
ment." 

For a year or more after this. Princess Eliza- 
beth was in high disfavour with the Council who 
succeeded, to a certain extent, in alienating from 
her the affections of the young King. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 19 

Her Highness, during her enforced retirement, 
devoted herself to her studies, and particularly 
to the classics and theology, under the guidance 
of Roger Ascham, who enthusiastically sounded 
the praises of his Royal pupil to John Sturmius, 
Rector of the Protestant Academy at Strasburg. 

" Numberless honourable ladies of the present 
time," writes Ascham, " surpass the daughters of 
Sir Thomas More in every kind of learning; but, 
among them all, my illustrious Mistress, the Lady 
Elizabeth, shines like a star, excelling them more 
by the splendour of her virtues and learning than 
by the glory of her Royal birth. She has accom- 
plished her sixteenth year and with so much solid- 
ity of understanding, such courtesy united with 
dignity, that the like has never been observed at 
so early an age. She has the most ardent love 
of true religion and of the best kind of literature. 
The constitution of her mind is exempt from female 
weakness and she is endued with a masculine power 
of application. No apprehension can be quicker 
than hers, no memory more retentive. French 
and Italian she speaks like English, Latin with 
fluency, propriety and judgment; she also speaks 
Greek with me frequently, willingly and moderately 
well. Nothing can be more elegant than her hand- 
writing, whether in Greek or Roman characters. 
In music she is very skilful, but does not greatly 
delight." 

Although the commendation of this famous 
scholar helped to restore the Princess to her 



so QUEEN ELIZABETH 

brother's favour, he, at last, through the baleful 
influence of the powerful Duke of Northumber- 
land, who had succeeded Somerset as Protector, 
became no less estranged from her whom he was 
wont to call " his sweetest Lisbeth " than from the 
Lady Mary. On his death-bed, the boy-king was 
induced by Northumberland to set aside his 
father's will and to bequeath the Crown to his 
young cousin, Lady Jane Grey, the daughter-in- 
law of the wily Duke. 

Mary, however, was not the woman to yield 
without a struggle, and when, upon the death of 
Edward, Jane was proclaimed Queen, she mar- 
shalled her forces and promptly advanced to seize 
the Crown that was rightfully hers. The defence- 
less position of the Princess Elizabeth and her 
nearness to London placed her in great danger, 
and it was only by displaying extreme prudence 
and caution that she escaped being dragged to 
the Tower by Northumberland's party. She 
pleaded a fit of illness, real or assumed, as an 
excuse for not joining in the hot struggle for 
the Crown, and thereby showed her sound good 
sense. She really took sides, however, with her 
sister Mary and gave her what aid she could. As 
Mary advanced toward the Capitol, one thousand 
horsemen rode to the Princess Elizabeth and placed 
themselves under her command. Thereupon she 
speedily forgot her illness, and putting herself 
at the head of the formidable array, ordered them 
to proceed and join forces with Mary. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH ai 

At Wanstead the Royal sisters met, and Mary 
was very gracious toward every lady presented 
by Elizabeth. 

On Queen Mary's triumphal entry into London, 
the sisters rode side by side in the splendid caval- 
cade. The beauty of the Princess Elizabeth, then 
in the fresh bloom of twenty, and the grace of 
her tall, majestic figure, made Mary, who was al- 
most double her age, short, thin, and worn by sick- 
ness appear at great disadvantage. 

Less than a month after the Queen's accession, 
the seeds of discord were sown between Mary and 
the Princess. The trouble was mainly on the 
ground of religion. Elizabeth persistently re- 
fused to attend Mass, even when ordered to do so 
by Mary and her Council. The Protestants, ad- 
miring her courage and firmness, placed all their 
hopes in her, as the leader of their party; while 
the Queen regarded her as the greatest obstacle 
in restoring the Papacy in England. She tried 
in vain alternate threats and entreaties to force the 
Princess to attend Mass. Then, writes the French 
Ambassador, De Noailles, " the Queen caused her 
to be preached to and entreated by all the great 
men of the Council, one after the other, but their 
importunity only elicited from her, at last, a very 
rude reply." 

But, at length, the Princess Elizabeth realized 
that she must make, at least, a show of tempor- 
izing, if she was to be recognized as the heiress 
presumptive to the Throne. With this end in view, 



m QUEEN ELIZABETH 

she attended, but with visible signs of distaste, the 
celebration of the birth of the Virgin. By this 
and similar means, she succeeded in being formally 
recognized as reversionary heiress to the Crown. 

Mary, however, had, at the meeting of her first 
Parliament, declared the validity of her mother's 
marriage, and, although she did not attempt to 
alter the conditions of her father's will in respect 
to the reversionary claims of the Princess Eliza- 
beth, she allowed the Duchess of Suffolk and her 
children to take precedence over her. This tacit 
slur on her birth, together with further indignities, 
so displeased the Princess that she refused to at- 
tend Mass again and shut herself up in her cham- 
ber. She was now looked upon with such suspi- 
cion that her every movement was watched by spies 
of the Council. 

Elizabeth was in a position of extreme danger. 
Renaud, the intriguing Spanish Ambassador, and 
De Noailles, the equally infamous delegate of the 
French Court, were weaving their insidious plots 
about her and the Catholic clergy were bitter foes 
to the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whom they re- 
garded as the fountain head of Protestantism. 
The Princess found it necessary to employ all the 
prudence and discreetness with which Nature had 
endowed her; a single false step would have cost 
her her life. 



Ill 

THE IMPRISONMENT OF THE PRINCESS 
ELIZABETH 

As a result of the machinations of Gardiner, 
Bishop of Winchester, and his emissaries, who 
constantly strove to stir up discord between the 
Catholic Queen and the Protestant Princess, the 
presumptive heiress to the Throne, Elizabeth, to- 
gether with Edward Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, 
were accused of complicity in the rebellion of Sir 
Thomas Wyatt. This Kentish rebel, who aimed 
at the overthrow of Mary and her party, when 
arrested, basely accused Elizabeth and Courtney 
of being instigators of the revolt. The plot was 
in reality hatched by the French Ambassador, De 
Noailles, who dreaded the ascendancy the Spanish 
party was gaining in England through the ap- 
proaching nuptials of the Queen with Don Philip. 
He also desired to destroy the heiress to the Throne 
and bring about the succession of Mary, Queen of 
Scots, the grandchild of the elder sister of Henry 
VIII. and the daughter-in-law- of the French King. 
So he gave aid to the revolt of the Protestant 
party, whose plans were to marry the weak, but 
ambitious Courtney to Elizabeth and seat them 



24 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

jointly on the Throne. The proposed bridegroom 
was of the Blood Royal, being grandson to Kath- 
erine, daughter of Edward IV. His father, the 
Marquis of Exeter, was beheaded toward the close 
of the reign of Henry VIII, and the son, though 
a mere child at the time, had remained a close 
prisoner in the Tower. 

Mary, at her accession, released him, and was 
so pleased with his handsome face and courtly 
manners that she created him Earl of Devonshire, 
and had some idea of marrying him. But Court- 
ney, while aspiring to the hand of the Queen, was 
indiscreet enough to allow his admiration for the 
superior charms and lively wit of the Princess 
Elizabeth to become known. Her Highness was 
inclined to favour his advances and fan his pas- 
sion, for she always liked to keep handsome young 
men dangling about her. There is no reason to 
suppose that her feelings for him were deeper than 
those of a young woman, a coquette by nature, 
who was flattered by the attentions of one hon- 
oured with the regard of a Queen. This affair, 
however, was made much of by her enemies, and 
soon Mary showed a decided coolness and next 
active hostility against Courtney. She then affi- 
anced herself to Philip of Spain. 

At the instigation of the conspirators, secretly 
backed by the treacherous De Noailles, Courtney 
entered into an engagement of marriage with Eliz- 
abeth. He was probably well satisfied with the 
change of brides, so long as the Crown too was 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 25 

included in the compact. The Princess, however, 
refused to openly declare her views, and, display- 
ing her usual caution, remained wholly passive. 
This prudent conduct so exasperated De Noailles 
that he actually formed a plot to carry Elizabeth 
away by force, marry her tO' the Earl, and then 
convey them to Devonshire, where were powerful 
friends of Courtney. 

Her Highness, aware of the peril she was in, 
finally obtained leave to retire to her estate at 
Ashbridge. Courtney, soon after, treacherously 
betrayed his fellow-conspirators to Gardiner, which 
precipitated the revolt of Wyatt. This insur- 
rection was promptly quelled with great severity 
and its leader captured, who, as has been said, 
accused the unhappy Princess and her weak- 
minded lover of being the excitors of the bloody 
rebellion. 

Courtney was at once taken into custody and 
Elizabeth was commanded to return to Court. She 
pleaded illness as her excuse for not obeying this 
dangerous summons. Then the Queen, believing 
she had every cause to distrust her loyalty, sent 
Lord Howard, Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir 
Thomas Cromwell with a troop of two hundred 
and fifty horsemen to Ashbridge to bring the 
Princess to London by force. With this formida- 
ble array, went two of the Court physicians to 
see if Her Highness was really ill or only feigning, 
for Elizabeth had a way of taking to her bed in 
order to avoid unpleasant interviews. 



26 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

The party arrived at Ashbridge at ten o'clock 
and peremptorily demanded to see the Princess. 
She sent word that she was sick and in bed, and 
requested them to wait until the next morning. 
But the Lords sent back a rough reply that they 
must see her at once, no matter in what state 
she was. Before the attendant could deliver this 
uncivil message, they forced their way into the 
chamber where Elizabeth lay in bed, really sick. 

The Princess, greatly amazed and somewhat 
alarmed at their unceremonious and rude entrance, 
demanded why they came in such haste at so un- 
timely an hour. They told her it was the Queen's 
pleasure that she be at once conveyed to London. 
She answered that she would be glad to obey Her 
Majesty, were she not unable to do so on account 
of her illness. ^ 

But the Lords replied that they had instructions 
to bring her, alive or dead. Then the Princess 
said sorrowfully, fearing that there must be some 
dreadful import to this decisive summons, " Your 
commission is very sore, my Lords." 

The two physicians were next called in, and 
upon testifying that she could travel without dan- 
ger to life, the Nobles told her that the Queen's 
litter would be ready for her at nine o'clock on 
the morrow. 

On the next day, precisely at the appointed 
time. Her Highness, weak and suffering in body 
and mind, was forced to enter the litter, although 
she almost fainted several times on the way from 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 27 

her chamber. This day was the one fixed for the 
execution of Lady Jane Grey, her own cousin. 
The knowledge of this fact lent a frightful signifi- 
cance to this abrupt command to return to Lon- 
don. Her attendants stood about weeping and 
heavy-hearted, for, like their unhappy Mistress, 
they feared that the scaffold would be the end of 
this forced journey. 

The Princess managed to preserve an outward 
calm, although her pale, wan face testified to her 
sufferings. On the journey, which occupied four 
days, the litter was surrounded and followed by a 
multitude of people, who loudly proclaimed their 
devotion to her and lamented her captivity. 

Upon reaching the Court, she was immediately 
confined in her own apartments and kept a close 
prisoner for two weeks, seeing neither the Queen 
nor any friend save the few attendants she was 
still allowed to keep about her. To add to the 
terrible suspense she was in, Mary refused to hold 
even a written communication with her. 

On March 16th, about three weeks after the 
arrival of the Princess at London, Gardiner, to- 
gether with nineteen members of the Council, came 
to her and accused her of conspiring with Wyatt. 
But she fearlessly declared her entire innocence, 
saying, " I am altogether guiltless therein." A 
further charge wias brought against her, at the 
same time, of being concerned in the rebellion of 
Sir Peter Carewe in the West. This, too, she 
emphatically denied. After a lengthy and relent- 



£8 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

less examination, the Councillors, seeing that it was 
impossible to coerce or terrify her into incrim- 
inating herself, informed her that she must prepare 
to go to the Tower. 

Elizabeth, aghast at the mention of this dismal 
prison, answered that " she trusted the Queen's 
Majesty would be a more gracious lady to her; 
and that Her Highness would not otherwise con- 
ceive of her but that she was a true and loyal 
woman." She went on to say that " she was in- 
nocent in all those matters wherein they had 
burdened her and desired them to speak in her 
favour to the Queen, saying she would ask no 
mercy, if she should be proved guilty." 

But her inquisitors answered that it was the 
Queen's commands that she go to the Tower, and 
there was no help for it. They then departed 
with their caps over their eyes. This was done as 
a sign of disrespect. 

Directly after this, all her own attendants were 
removed, and three grooms and three waiting- 
women in the service of Queen Mary were put in 
their places. 

The next night, the Marquis of Winchester and 
the Earl of Sussex informed the Princess that the 
barge was ready and the tide suitable for conveying 
her to the Tower. But she, wishing to defer this 
dreaded journey, begged them to wait until the 
next tide, as this would be in the day time. 

Winchester harshly answered : " Neither time 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 2§ 

nor tide is to be delayed." He also refused her 
request to be allowed to write to the Queen. 

But Sussex, who was of a more kindly nature, 
not only gave permission, but promised on his 
honour to deliver the letter himself. 

So Elizabeth wrote a lengthy epistle, taking 
care not to bring it to a close until the tide had 
changed, in this way making it imperative that 
the journey be put off until the next day. In this 
letter, she protested her entire innocence, declar- 
ing that she would be ready tO' die a shameful 
death if she were really a traitor. She ended with 
an earnest entreaty for a personal interview be- 
fore going to the Tower. She signed herself 
"Your Highness' most faithful subject that hath 
been from the beginning and will be to my end." 

At nine o'clock on the next morning, the Princess 
was forced to depart, although she had received 
no answer whatever to her letter. As she stepped 
into the barge, she said " she marveled much what 
the Nobility of the realm meant by suffering her, 
a Princess, to be led forth into captivity, the 
Lord knew whither, for she did not." 

The Nobles in their haste to land the prisoner at 
the Tower, without attracting the attention of the 
people, whose idol Elizabeth was, arrived too early, 
and found that the tide was not high enough to 
allow the barge to shoot the bridge, where the fall 
of water was very great. For an hour, the boat 
hovered around the shore, until the Lords, growing 



30 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

impatient and fearing that among those who were 
already gathering on the banks, there might be 
some friends who would try to rescue the captive 
Princess, commanded the boatmen to proceed. 
This they were very unwilling to do, declaring that 
at this tide it would be exceedingly dangerous 
and practically impossible to go down the river. 
Elizabeth, too, entreated them to wait for the next 
tide, hoping to gain more time and thereby to 
receive an answer from the Queen. 

" Time and tide wait for no man," was the un- 
yielding reply. Seeing that further delay would 
not be granted, she resigned herself to the inevita- 
ble and said no more. The reluctant boatmen, still 
protesting loudly at the danger they would incur, 
were harshly commanded to proceed. The stem 
of the boat struck violently against the timbers 
of the bridge, and it was with great danger and 
difficulty that the rowers prevented the frail barge 
with its Royal passenger from capsizing. 

All through this fearful descent of the river, the 
Princess preserved outwardly a lofty calm and 
her usual majestic mien, although her thoughts 
could not have been other than dark and fore- 
boding, at seeing herself utterly defenceless, sur- 
rounded by pitiless foes, while far and wide around 
her stretched the turbulent waters of the Thames. 
To add to the dreariness of the scene, a heavy rain 
had set in. 

The lion-Hke spirit of Elizabeth, although un- 
subdued by the peril she was in, was deeply sad- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 31 

dened as the boat drew near the towers and 
battlements of the grim old fortress, which, at near 
approach, stood out black and threatening above 
the gloom of the day. The thoughts of the Royal 
captive must have been bitter indeed when close 
to that stout prison from which her own mother 
and many a prisoner of State had come forth to 
die. Still, she spoke no word and gave no indi- 
cation of her emotions until she realized that they 
were about to land her at the Traitor's Gate. 
Then her proud heart rebelled at this insult, and 
she cried : " I refuse to land at the stairs where 
all traitors and offenders customably land, and 
neither well can I, unless I go over my shoe in the 
water." 

But when she was told it was by the Queen's 
express command that she was brought there and 
that she would be permitted no choice, she stepped 
firmly from the barge onto the wet and slippery 
landing, declining all assistance and saying : " If 
it be so, my Lords, I must needs obey, protesting 
before all your honours, that here now step^ 
peth as true a subject as ever was towards the 
Queen's Highness. And before thee, O God, I 
speak it, having now none other friend but only 
Thee!" 

'* It is no time now to test the truth of this," 
was the rough response of her captors, as they 
urged her forward. " But it is better for you, 
if it be so." 

" You have said well, my Lords," answered 



3a QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Elizabeth, with majestic calm. " I am sorry that 
I have troubled you." 

She then entered the courtyard of the Tower 
and passed between rows of liveried men and 
armed soldiers, drawn up on both sides of the 
entrance. She inquired the cause of this and was 
told it was the customary way of receiving pris- 
oners of State. 

" And if it be for my cause," said the Princess, 
" I beseech you that they may be dismissed, for 
it is not well to stand outside in this inclement 
weather." 

Then these stalwart guards, pleased at this 
kindly speech and moved with compassion for the 
forlorn prisoner, knelt down and prayed God to 
preserve Her Highness. 

Elizabeth, her heart touched by this simple ex- 
pression of good-will, thanked them graciously, 
with a tremulous smile, and bade them rise. 

She then sank upon a cold, damp stone and re- 
mained sitting there, regardless of the rain that 
was pouring down upon her. Lord Chandos, the 
Lieutenant of the Tower, advised her to come in 
out of the wet, and, upon her refusal, laid his coat 
about her shoulders. She dashed it from her, 
" with a good dash," exclaiming, " Better sitting 
here than in a worse place. For God knoweth! 
I know not, whither you will bring me." 

At this, her Gentleman Usher, who was one of 
her most faithful and devoted attendants among 
the few she had been permitted to keep about her. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 33 

burst into tears. Her Highness was moved by the 
sympathy of this loyal servant and rose from her 
hard seat, saying, " she knew her truth to be 
such that no man should have cause to weep for 
her." As she passed through the gloomy portal, 
the doors were locked and bolted behind her. She 
was conducted at once to her cell which, some af- 
firm, was in the Bell Tower, directly under the 
great alarum bell, so that the whole fortress could 
be instantly aroused in case of any attempt at 
escape. Courtney was imprisoned not far distant. 

There was a great conference among the Lords 
as to how they could guard the Princess most 
strictly. Many harsh measures were suggested, 
but Sussex advocated close restraint without undue 
severity. " For just dealing," said he, " is always 
answerable. Let us take heed, my Lords, that we 
go not beyond our commission, for she was our 
King's daughter, and is, we know, the Prince next 
in blood. Wherefore let us so deal with her now, 
that we have not, if it so happen, to answer for our 
dealings hereafter." 

While Elizabeth languished in the Tower, 
" there was much gaping among the Lords of the 
Clergy to see the day wherein they might wash 
their goodly white rochets in her innocent blood," 
writes Foxe. The Lord Chancellor Gardiner 
clamoured loudest of all for her death. 

A few days after her entrance in to the Tower, 
the Princess was strictly examined by Gardiner 
and some others concerning a conversation she 



34 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

had held with Sir James Croft; they demanded, 
among other things, to know why she had moved 
from Ashbridge to Donnington Castle. At first, 
she denied all knowledge of such a house, and 
then, seeing that no one was disposed to believe 
her, admitted that she was the owner of it, but 
emphatically declared that she had never been 
there. 

Then her examiners, determined to prove her 
complicity in the plans of Croft, had him brought 
into the cell and confronted her with him. 

Elizabeth, her spirit roused by this persistent 
inquisition, cried, in indignation : " My Lords, 
you do examine every mean prisoner of me! 
Wherein me thinks you do me great injury. If 
they have done evil and offended the Queen's Maj- 
esty, let them answer to it accordingly. I beseech 
you, my Lords, join not me in this sort with any 
of these offenders, and, as concerning my going to 
Donnington Castle, I doi remember Master Hoby 
and mine officers and you, Sir James Croft, had 
such talk. But what is that to the purpose, my 
Lords, but that I may go to my own houses at 
all times ? " 

The Earl of Arundel, pleased with this intrepid 
reply and the courageous bearing of the captive 
Princess, knelt down and asked her pardon for 
troubling her with such trifling matters. 

Her Highness answered, in a milder tone than 
before, " My Lords, you did sift me very narrowly ! 
But well I am assured you shall do no more to me 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 85 

than God hath appointed, and so God forgive you 
aU." 

Croft, much moved by this conciliatory speech, 
knelt in his turn and said he was sorry to be 
brought as a witness against her, and declared his 
utter innocence of the matter. 

Arundel, before this a most determined enemy 
to the Princess, now began to speak loudly in her 
favour. Although he was many years her senior, 
he became her persistent suitor throughout the 
rest of his life, and was one of the familiar figures 
at the Court of the Virgin Queen. His attachment 
was probably sincere, although fostered by ambi- 
tion, as it began at a time when the object of his 
affections seemed more likely to ascend the scaffold 
than the throne. 



IV 

THE FURTHER IMPRISONMENT OF THE 
PRINCESS 

On April 25, Sir Thomas Wyatt was beheaded. 
Before laying his head on the block, he made a 
final statement, completely contradicting his pre- 
vious one in which he had accused the Princess 
and Courtney of being fellow-conspirators. He 
said: "Concerning my Lady Elizabeth's Grace 
and the Earl of Devonshire, here I take it upon 
my death that they never knew of the conspiracy, 
neither of my first rising; and, as touching any 
fault that is laid to their charge, I cannot accuse 
them. (God I take in witness.) " 

In spite of the exoneration by the rebel leader, 
Her Highness and Courtney were as closely con- 
fined as before. Her attendants, fearing that an 
attempt would be made to do away with her se- 
cretly through poison placed in her food, besought 
the Council that some of her own servants might 
be appointed to carry the food direct to her, in- 
stead of allowing the soldiers of the Tower to 
convey it as had been the custom. This request 
was granted, and, after that, one of the gentlemen 
of the Princess' suite, her clerk of the kitchen, 

36 



QUEEN ELIZABETH &1 

and two purveyors brought her food to her once 
a day. This had been cooked, from her first en- 
trance into the Tower, by her own servants, but 
there was opportunity for foul play offered in the 
former handing of it over to the guards of the 
Tower. This danger was now eliminated, and the 
men bearing the food were accompanied and closely 
watched by Sir John Gage, Constable of the 
Tower. 

After Elizabeth had been imprisoned a month, 
she sent for Gage and Lord Chandos and asked 
their permission to take a daily walk in the open 
air, for the close restraint was telling upon her 
health. They refused this request, saying that 
they had commands to the contrary which they 
dared not disobey. 

Then the Princess requested that she might at 
least walk in the Queen's Lodgings, an apartment 
reserved for the use of Royalty. But her jailers 
answered that even this would require a special 
suit to the Queen and her Council. 

" Well, my Lords," exclaimed Her Highness, 
losing all patience, " if the matter be so hard that 
they must be sued unto for so small a thing, and 
if friendship be so strait, God comfort me ! " 

The next day, however. Lord Chandos told her 
that he had appealed to the Council in her behalf ; 
after a long and stormy debate it had been de- 
cided to allow her to walk in the Queen's Lodgings, 
closely attended by himself, the Constable, and 
three gentlewomen in the service of the Queen, 



38 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

but all windows must be tightly shut and locked. 
The Princess, forced to be content with this 
small favour, thanked the Lieutenant for his good- 
wiU. 

Later on, permission was granted her to walk in 
a little garden, the doors and gates of which were 
securely locked. When she took her exercise, the 
prisoners on that side of the Tower were not al- 
lowed to communicate with her in any way, or 
even to look out of the windows into the garden. 

A little boy of three or four years, the son of 
one of the jailers, used to visit the cells of many 
of the prisoners and bring them flowers. Eliza- 
beth and Courtney were among the number whose 
solitude was cheered by the coming of the child. 

The enemies of the Princess, wishing to prove 
that she and the Earl kept up a correspondence 
by means of this child, called him to a room in 
the Tower, and bribed him with fruits and candy 
to answer their questions, all of which were in- 
tended to incriminate the Royal captive and her 
weak-minded lover. 

They first asked the boy when he had last seen 
Devonshire. He replied that he was going to 
see him by-and-by. They then demanded when he 
was with Elizabeth. " Every day," he said 
quickly. The next question, following close upon 
this, was what messages or tokens the Earl sent 
to the Princess. 

The child, perhaps divining the malicious intent 
of this persistent questioning, answered, " I will 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 39 

go at once and find out what he will give me to 
carry to her." 

" This is a crafty boy," said Sir John Gage. 
" What say you, my Lord Chandos ? " 

" I pray you, my Lord, give me the sweets you 
promised me," pleaded the child. 

" Nay," was the harsh reply, " rather shalt thou 
be whipped if thou come any more to the Lady 
Elizabeth or the Lord Courtney." 

But the loyal child fearlessly answered, " I will 
bring the Lady, my Mistress, more flowers." 

The Lords, enraged at the innocent boy, ordered 
his father to keep him out of the prisoners' 
rooms. 

The next day, as the Princess was walking in 
the garden, the little fellow peeped through a key- 
hole and cried, " Mistress, I can bring you no 
more flowers." 

She smiled sadly and bitterly, but said nothing, 
for she understood the cause full well. 

The Constable, discovering this further friendly 
act of the child, rebuked the father harshly, and 
ordered him to put the boy out of the Tower, 
saying, " It is a crafty knave, let me see him here 
no more." 

While Elizabeth was in the Tower, Gardiner 
" sent a secret writ, signed by a few of the Council, 
for her private execution, and, had Mr. Bridges, 
the Warden of the Tower, been so little scrupulous 
of dark assassination as this pious prelate was, 
she must have perished. The warrant not having 



40 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the Queen's signature, Mr. Bridges hastened to 
give Her Majesty information of it, and to know 
her mind." (Foxe, " Acts and Monuments.") 

On May 5, Sir John Gage was replaced as Con- 
stable by Sir Henry Bedingfield, who arrived ac- 
companied by a troop of one hundred soldiers. 
This sudden change of officers amazed and alarmed 
the Princess, causing her to think that the Council 
had now fully determined on her death. She in- 
quired if the Lady Jane's scaffold had been taken 
down. On being told it was, she seemed somewhat 
relieved, but asked what sort of man Sir Henry 
was and if he was of the nature that would se- 
cretly murder her, were he so commanded. The 
Wardens answered that they did not know what 
sort of man he was, but they did not believe God 
would permit such wickedness. 

" God grant it be so ! " she cried. " I beseech 
Thee, O God ! to hear me Thy creature which am 
Thy servant and at Thy commandment, trusting 
by Thy grace ever so to remain." 

Shortly after this. Her Highness was informed 
that she was to be carried from the Tower under 
escort of Sir Henry and his soldiers. But she, 
distrusting this sudden removal, requested permis- 
sion to remain where she was. 

Lord Chandos told her that she had no alterna- 
tive, but was to be taken at once to the manor- 
house of Woodstock. When she asked him the 
cause of her departure, he said that other pris- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 41 

oners were to be brought to the Tower, but who 
he did not know. 

On May 16, Elizabeth, together with her at- 
tendants and personal belongings, was removed 
from the Tower. 

Under escort of Bedingfield and his soldiers, she 
was conveyed by water that day as far as Rich- 
mond, where she passed the night. Here, all her 
own men were removed, and the soldiers of Sir 
Henry appointed in their place to attend her. 
This made her suspect that there was a plot 
brewing against her life, and, as she was retiring 
to her chamber, she called her Gentleman Usher 
and bade him and her other attendants pray for 
her. " For this night," she said, " I think to 
die." 

The Gentleman Usher gave what small comfort 
he could, but, having like fears, hastened at once 
to the court where Sir Henry and Lord Williams 
of Thame were walking and besought them to de- 
clare their intentions regarding the Princess, say- 
ing that he and their companions would give their 
lives to save hers, which they feared was in dan- 
ger. 

Lord Thame answered quickly, " God forbid that 
there be any such purpose! Rather than that it 
should be so, I and my men are ready to die at her 
feet also." 

The next morning the party passed on to Wind- 
sor. The rest of the journey was made on horse- 



42 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

back, and, as Elizabeth rode through the villages, 
the people testified their love and sympathy for 
her by presenting her with various gifts and ring- 
ing the bells in joy at her coming among them. 
While these demonstrations cheered and delighted 
the heart of the prisoner, showing her what a 
favourite she was with the nation at large, they 
greatly displeased Bedingfield. He called them 
" rebels " and " traitors," and caused some of the 
more jubilant of the bell-ringers to be seized by 
his soldiers and placed in the stocks. 

The next night was spent at the house of Lord 
Thame in the village of Thame, where the Princess 
was entertained in a manner suiting her dignity. 
Here many Lords, Ladies and the neighbouring 
gentry paid their court to her. 

Bedingfield was mightily offended at this and 
bade them remember that the object of their flat- 
tering attentions was the Queen's prisoner, and 
nothing else, and that they had best beware the 
results of such treasonable adulation. 

But Lord Thame said his instructions were that 
Her Grace should be made merry and comfortable 
in his house and he intended to cari-y out his com- 
mission. 

Sir Henry, to show his further authority and 
utter lack of respect due to the Princess, went up 
to her rooms and, sitting down in a chair espe- 
cially provided for her, and stretching out his 
legs as though he were master of the apartment, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 43 

insolently ordered his valet to pull off his 
boots.* 

The guests, when they heard of this, accused him 
of undue harshness and complete lack of courtesy 
toward the Queen's sister. This championship of 
the Princess, however, only enraged Bedingfield, 
and, as soon as supper was finished, he called the 
host and ordered him to clear the house of all the 
company. 

Lord Thame, angered at this command and per- 
sistent rudeness toward their Royal charge, replied 
that the house should be cleared of all, including 
Sir Henry himself and his soldiers. 

" Nay," roared Sir Henry, " my soldiers shall 
watch all night and whether there be need or not, 
shall do so out of distrust for the company." 

So an evening that would otherwise have passed 
pleasantly for the Princess, was spoiled by the 
discourtesy and suspicious watchfulness of the 
over-zealous Bedingfield. 

On May 20, Her Highness reached Woodstock, 
where she was as closely guarded as when in the 
Tower. Soldiers were stationed both inside and 
out. But she was allowed to walk in the gardens, 
though under strict surveillance. Each gate to 
these gardens had several locks, and Sir Henry 
kept the keys to every one in his own possession 
and would trust them to no one. 

*This anecdote has been discredited, according to F. A. 
Mumby. 



44? QUEEN ELIZABETH 

One day, Elizabeth, annoyed by his close attend- 
ance, sharply rebuked him, calling him her 
" jailer." At this he knelt down and said he 
meant no offence, but was only doing his duty as 
one of her officers. 

" Good Lord, deliver me from such officers ! " 
she exclaimed vehemently. 

Foxe tells us that one of her attendants, who 
was somewhat of a wag, and greatly amused at the 
elaborate system of locks and bolts employed by 
Sir Henry to ensure the safety of the captive and 
prevent her from communicating with any one out- 
side, once saw a goat in the garden where Her 
Highness was walking. He picked up the animal, 
threw it over his shoulder, and carried it to the 
Princess who asked what he had there. 

He answered, " An it please Your Grace, I can- 
not tell, for I am uncertain whether he be one of the 
Queen's friends or not. But I will carry him to 
Sir Henry Bedingfield to know what he is." 

This he did at once, and to Sir Henry's half- 
angry question as to what the creature was, he 
replied, " I cannot tell what he is. I pray you 
examine him, for I found him walking in the place 
where my Lady's Grace was and I do not know 
what talk they have had together. I do not un- 
derstand him, but take him to be some stranger; 
as I am the Queen's subject and it is her will that 
no stranger have access to the Princess, I hold it 
my duty to bring this stranger to you to examine 
as you see fit." 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 45 

Sir Henry, not perhaps possessing a sense of 
humour, was greatly displeased and ordered the 
fellow to depart with the goat. 

Lord Thame constantly showed himself a good 
friend to the Princess, and, finally, as the result of 
his intercession, obtained permission for her to re- 
move from Woodstock to his house where she might 
be treated with less harshness. Her Highness, de- 
lighted at the proposed change, made all her 
preparations to depart. But her persistent enemy, 
Gardiner, interposed his authority, and at the 
last minute letters were sent to stop the journey. 

Elizabeth became much depressed at this, feeling 
that she was indeed in the hands of her foes, and 
that it was well-nigh useless for her friends to try 
to aid her. One day, hearing a milkmaid singing 
merrily in a pasture near by, she sighed and said : 
" That milkmaid is better off and her life more 
happy than mine in the state I am now in." A 
sad admission indeed for the proud-spirited Tudor 
Princess ! 

Another day. Her Highness scratched upon a 
window-pane with a diamond the following lines : 

** Much suspected by me. 
Nothing proved can be, 
Quoth Elizabeth, the prisoner." 

This was, to be sure, the attitude of the Council 
toward the sister of their Sovereign. There was 
suspicion in abundance, but proof was not forth- 
coming. 



46 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

During the Princess' imprisonment at Wood- 
stock, several attempts were made to murder her. 
A fire was discovered one night in the room be- 
neath the one she slept in and was extinguished 
with difficulty. Soon after this, Paul Perry, a 
ruffian, whose bloody sword was always for hire, 
was appointed to assassinate her. When this at- 
tempt also failed, Bassett, a creature of Gardiner, 
then undertook the sanguinary deed. He went 
to confer with Bedingfield about it, but as Sir 
Henry had gone to London and left strict orders 
that no one should be admitted in his absence, Bas- 
sett, too, failed of his purpose. 

After a year at Woodstock, Her Highness craved 
the permission of the Council to be allowed to 
write to the Queen. After a long delay this was 
at last granted. But Sir Henry brought the pen 
and ink, stood by her while she wrote and then told 
her that he would carry the letter to the Queen. 
But the Princess said she would have one of her 
own men, " for she neither trusted him nor his 
soldiers.'* 

He replied that no one of her men would dare 
to carry the letter of one who rested under such 
a cloud of suspicion as she did. 

To this the Princess answered, with all her 
wonted spirit, " I am assured I have none so dis- 
honest that would deny my request, but will be as 
willing to serve me now as before." 

He assured her, however, that even were this 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 47 

true, his commission was to the contrary and would 
not allow it. 

" You charge me very often with your commis- 
sions," she cried, passionately. " I pray God you 
may justly answer for the cruel dealing you use 
toward me." 

This rebuke caused Sir Henry to kneel again 
and protest that he was only doing his duty in 
obeying the Queen, but that he would as willingly 
serve her were it possible. Still he did not allow 
her letters to be carried until nearly a week after 
the writing, and then one of her own gentlemen 
was at last dispatched with them. 

Elizabeth bore no enmity to Bedingfield for his 
severity toward her. Upon her accession she al- 
lowed him to keep his life, lands and liberty, laugh- 
ingly administering the simple rebuke that he 
should have the custody of any prisoner of State 
whom she should desire to be strictly guarded. 
Later on, she even paid him a visit at his country 
seat during one of her progresses, and once again, 
though this time in merriment, hailed him as her 
"jailer." 

It is probable that Bedingfield was so strict a 
guard through fear of some secret attempt to mur- 
der his charge, and was determined that she should 
remain safe while in his custody, at least. 

In the beginning of the summer the Princess fell 
ill, and two Court physicians were sent to attend 
her. They returned with very favourable accounts 



48 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

of her loyalty and gracious demeanour. The 
Queen was pleased at this and sometimes now was 
heard to speak of her as " sister," but the Bishops, 
always relentless enemies to the child of Anne Bo- 
leyn, said, " they marvelled she did not submit her- 
self to Her Majesty's mercy, seeing she had of- 
fended Her Highness." 

When this was reported to Elizabeth, she flew 
into a rage, exclaiming, " I will never submit myself 
to them I have never offended. For, if I have 
offended and am guilty, I then crave no mercy but 
the law, which I am certain I should have had ere 
this if I could be proved guilty, for I know myself, 
I thank God, to be out of the danger thereof, 
wishing that I were as clear out of the peril of my 
enemy ! '* 

Shortly after the Queen's marriage on July 3, 
1554*, the Bishops and Lords discussed a plan for 
marrying off the Princess, who, however, seemed 
averse to any marriage whatsoever. The Spanish 
party suggested that she wed some foreigner in 
order that she might leave the Kingdom altogether. 
These plans were soon abandoned on account of 
the difficulty of finding a husband who would please 
the Princess. Elizabeth scornfully rejected the 
idea of leaving England; she wished to be on 
English soil when the Throne should become va- 
cant. 

Finally Mary, urged by Philip to release her 
sister, at last summoned her to Hampton Court 
in July, 1555. She left Woodstock again under 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 49 

escort of Lord Williams, Sir Henry and his sol- 
diers. 

On the journey the Princess was met by fifty 
or sixty of her gentlemen and yeomen, who had 
not been allowed to see her since her imprisonment. 
They hailed her with welcoming shouts and demon- 
strations of joy which would have moved her to 
make some fitting reply had not Sir Henry inter- 
posed and sternly commanded them to depart in 
the Queen's name. So they were forced to with- 
draw without speaking to their Mistress, who 
seemed as grieved as they. 

Next day Her Highness reached Hampton Court 
and was conducted up a back stair case to the 
Royal lodgings. The doors were tightly locked 
behind her, and for two weeks she was guarded 
night and day by armed soldiers without receiving 
any communication from the Court. 

Then, finally, came Lord William Howard, who 
treated her with a respect that she had not been 
accustomed to of late. His deferential manner 
emboldened her to ask permission to speak with the 
Council. 

In answer to her request, Gardiner, the Earl of 
Arundel, and two other Lords visited her soon after 
and greeted her with a show of humbleness that 
surprised her. 

" My Lords ! I am glad to see you ! " she cried. 
" For methinks I have been kept a great while 
from you desolately alone. Wherefore I desire 
you to be a means to the King's and Queen's Maj- 



50 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

esties that I may be delivered from prison wherein 
I have been kept a long space, as is known to 
you." 

Gardiner knelt down, and told her if she sub- 
mitted herself to the Queen's Grace she would be 
mercifully dealt with. 

But the Princess answered haughtily, " Rather 
than do so, she would lie in prison all the days of 
her life. For she craved no mercy at Her Maj- 
esty's hand, but rather the law, if she had ever 
offended her in thought, word, or deed." 

" In yielding," she concluded, " I should con- 
fess myself to be an offender, which I never was 
towards Her Majesty, and therefore I say, my 
Lords, it were better for me to lie in prison for 
truth than to be abroad and suspected of my 
Prince." 

The Councillors promised to give her message 
to the Queen and departed. 

The next day Gardiner came again, and told 
her the Queen marvelled that she should declare 
she had not offended her, for then it would seem 
she had wrongfully imprisoned her. 

" Nay, it may please her to punish me as she 
thinketh good," answered the Princess, quickly, 
careful to make no false step. 

" Her Majesty willeth me to say you must tell 
another tale ere you be set at liberty," said the 
implacable Gardiner. 

" I had as lief be in prison with honesty and 
truth as to be abroad suspected of Her Majesty, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 61 

and what I have said I will stand to, for I will 
never belie myself," cried the Princess, the Tudor 
temper getting the better of her caution. 

" Then Your Grace hath the vantage of me and 
the other Lords for your long and wrong im- 
prisonment? " queried Gardiner, insinuatingly. 

" What vantage I have, you best know, taking 
God to witness. I desire no vantage at your 
hands, but for your so dealing with me, may God 
forgive you and me also," said the Princess, think- 
ing it prudent to soften her tone somewhat. 

A week later, at ten o'clock at night, she was 
summoned to the Queen's presence. As Elizabeth 
had not seen her sister for two years, she was in- 
clined to distrust this summons. 

Sir Henry Bedingfield, watchful as ever, brought 
her into the garden and up a flight of steps to the 
Queen's apartments. Her Highness was followed 
by her own gentlewomen, while her Gentleman 
Usher and her grooms went before, carrying 
torches. At the top of the stairs, all the at- 
tendants, with the exception of one lady, were for- 
bidden to accompany the Princess further. 

Upon entering the Queen's bedchamber, Eliza- 
beth kneeled down and prayed God to preserve 
Her Majesty. Before rising, she added an ear- 
nest desire that her sister should believe her as 
true a subject as any she had, regardless of the 
false reports that had gone abroad concerning 
her. 

*' You will not then confess your fault," asked 



52 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the Queen, " but stand stoutly in your truth? I 
pray it may turn out so." 

" If it does not, I request neither favour nor 
pardon at Your Majesty's hands," was the proud 
reply of the Princess. 

" Well then, since you still persevere in your 
truth, probably you will not confess but that you 
have been wrongfully punished," said Queen Mary. 

" I must not say so, if it please Your Majesty, 
— to you," answered Her Highness, naively. 

" Why then, belike you will to others," cried 
Mary, angrily. 

" Nay, if it please Your Majesty, I have borne 
the burden and must still bear it. I humbly be- 
seech Your Majesty to have a good opinion of me, 
and to think me to be your true subject, not only 
from the beginning, but forever as long as life 
lasts," answered Elizabeth. 

After the Queen spoke some conciliatory words 
in reply, a half reconciliation between the Royal 
sisters took place, after which the Princess re- 
tired again to her lodgings. 

King Philip was thought to have been hidden 
behind the tapestry during the whole interview. 
At any rate, he used his influence with Mary to 
induce her to pardon the Princess for whom he 
evinced considerable admiration. Thomas Cecil 
says that Philip, after his return to Spain, re- 
marked that " whatever he suffered from Queen 
Elizabeth was the just judgment of God, because, 
being married to Queen Mary, a most virtuous 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 63 

and good lady, yet in the fancy of love he could 
not affect her; but as for the Lady Elizabeth, he 
was enamoured of her, being a fair and beautiful 
woman." 

A week after the interview with Mary, the 
Princess was set free and given permission to re- 
side in royal state at her favourite dwelling, Hat- 
field House in Hertfordshire. But Sir Thomas 
Pope, one of the councillors, was sent to live in 
her household and keep close watch on her actions 
during the remainder of Mary's reign. 

For prudence's sake, the Princess Elizabeth 
was forced to conform outwardly, at least, to the 
Catholic religion. But the Queen, who doubted 
her sincerity, had her questioned regarding her 
belief in the presence of the Divine in the Sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper. The quick-witted 
Princess, without hesitation, replied in these ex- 
tempore and ambiguous lines: 

" Christ was the word that spake it. 
He took the bread and brake it, 
And what his word did make it. 
That I believe and take it." 

This clever avoidance of a theological difficulty 
silenced her questioners and they forebore to ex- 
amine her further on points of belief. 

Although the Princess still continued to be 
closely watched, after the death of Gardiner, her 
danger steadily decreased, and she succeeded in 
ingratiating herself with the Queen, while at the 



54 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

same time, she skilfully evaded the numerous 
offers of marriage with which she was harassed. 
She continued on good terms with Mary up to the 
last who, a few days before her death, sent the 
Crown jewels to Elizabeth together with her dying 
requests that she be good to her servants, pay 
back the sums lent on privy seals, and continue the 
Church as she had established it. The first two 
of these requests, the Princess carefully carried 
out. 



THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 

" This Queen of Queens was openly proclaimed 
the 17th day of November, 1558, being then 
twenty-five years of age, abundantly adorned with 
the gifts of nature and princely education, having 
gained by experience and adversity wisdom above 
her age, and induced by God's special Grace, with 
true Zeal to Piety and Religion," writes Camden 
in his " History of the Most Renowned and Vic- 
torious Princess Elizabeth, Late Queen of Eng- 
land." 

When the death of Queen Mary was announced 
in the Parliament Chamber, where there happened 
to be a session at the time, there was a moment 
of silence in respect to the memory of the late 
Sovereign. Then the whole buildiag echoed and 
re-echoed with shouts of " God save Queen Eliza- 
beth, reign she most long, reign she most hap- 

pily!" 

Immediately after this, the Parliament breaking 
up, proclaimed her in the Palace of Westminster 
and throughout the City of London as " Queen of 
England, France and Ireland, Defendress of the 

Faith." The streets were filled with throngs of 

55 



66 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

people, shouting with joy at her accession and 
offering prayers for a lengthy and prosperous 
reign. The bells in all the London churches were 
rung night and day, huge bonfires were kindled, 
and tables set out on the streets, where there was 
eating, drinking and merrymaking until the early 
morning hours. On Saturday, the Te Deum 
Laudamus was sung and chanted in all the 
churches, which were thronged with people giving 
thranks for the accession of a popular Sovereign, 
who, from her childhood, had been the darling of 
the nation. 

During her entire life, says Camden, no ruler 
was so attended by affectionate demonstrations 
and enthusiastic acclamations, as Queen Eliza- 
beth upon all her appearances in public. 

After the proclaiming of the new Queen, the 
Earl of Arundel, Lord Clinton, the Earl of Pem- 
broke, and others rode post haste to Hatfield 
House where Elizabeth was living in retirement, 
pursuing her studies under the guidance of her 
tutor, Roger Ascham. When the death of Mary 
and her own accession was announced to the Prin- 
cess, she fell on her knees, after drawing a long 
breath, exclaiming, " A Domino factum est istud 
et est mirabile in oculis nostris — it is the Lord's 
doing and it is wonderful in our eyes." According 
to Naunton, this saying was afterwards placed on 
the gold coins of her reign, and on the silver coins 
another saying of hers, " Posui Deum adjutorem 
meum — I have taken God for my helper." 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 57 

On November 20th, the new Sovereign held her 
first Privy Council at Hatfield. She showed her 
good sense in the choice of her Councillors ; retain- 
ing from her sister's Cabinet the Lord Howard of 
Effingham as Lord Chamberlain, and eleven other 
Catholics. This wise measure enlisted upon her 
side many of that religion who might otherwise 
have opposed her. She also included among her 
advisors seven Protestants, all men of wisdom and 
judgment and heartily devoted to her. Chief 
among these were William Cecil, who had also 
been Secretary to Her Majesty's brother. King 
Edward VI, and whom she, later, created Lord 
Burleigh, and Nicholas Bacon, who was appointed 
Keeper of the Great Seal. The political tie be- 
tween the sagacious statesman, Cecil, and his 
Queen was not severed, though at times strained, 
until the death of the former, which was a bitter 
grief to the Royal Mistress he had served so faith- 
fully throughout the greater part of his long life. 

On his installation into the Council, Elizabeth 
addressed to him the following instructions : " I 
give you this charge that you shall be of my Privy 
Council, and content yourself to take pains for me 
and my Realm. This judgment I have of you that 
you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift, 
and that you will be faithful to the State, and that, 
without respect to my private will, you will give me 
that counsel which you think best, and if you shall 
know anything to be declared to me of secrecy, 
you shall show it to myself only, and assure your- 



58 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

self I will not fail to keep taciturnity therein and 
therefore herewith I charge you." 

That very day Her Majesty accepted his advice 
on some important matters and appointed him the 
principal Secretary of State. 

The first act of the new Sovereign was the resto- 
ration of the Protestant religion in whose tenets 
she had been brought up. But she resolved to 
proceed gradually, though none the less securely, 
and determined not to imitate the violent and 
fanatic example set her by Mary in changing the 
State religion. She recalled all the exiles and 
freed all the prisoners detained on account of re- 
ligion. A certain Rainsford jestingly told the 
Queen that he had a petition to present to her in 
behalf of other prisoners, namely, Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John. She instantly answered in the 
same merry strain that she must first consult the 
prisoners themselves and learn from them if they 
desired that liberty which he asked for them. 

The Church she established was midway between 
the Roman Catholic and extreme Protestant. She 
did not inquire nor probe into the consciences of 
her subjects, as had been done in the preceding 
reign; but merely demanded outward conformity 
to the Church of which she was the head in Eng- 
land, requiring, simply, attendance at service once 
a week, under penalty of a fine. As a consequence 
of this moderation in an age where toleration was 
seldom practised and almost unknown, there was 
little religious discontent among her subjects. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 59 

Immediately upon the proclaiming of Elizabeth, 
her brother-in-law, the King of Spain, realizing 
that by the death of Queen Mary he would lose 
his authority over England, sent to the new Sov- 
ereign an offer of marriage, provided she would 
uphold the Catholic religion. He never dreamed 
of the possibility of her refusing his offer, for he 
held the universal opinion that without his pro- 
tection she could not maintain her Throne against 
a French invasion in the interests of the Queen of 
Scots. Far the French King, by the marriage of 
the Dauphin to Mary Stuart, intended to unite 
the Crowns of England and Scotland and ulti- 
mately annex them to France. But Queen Eliza- 
beth shrewdly surmised that Philip of Spain's own 
interests would force him to prevent the carrying 
out of the French King's scheme, and she had no 
intention of becoming dependent upon her ugly, 
domineering, little brother-in-law. After consid- 
erable fencing, she replied that she intended to 
remain unmarried, and that she did not fear 
France. 

A month after her accession, the Spanish Am- 
bassador wrote to his master : " She orders and 
does what pleases her as absolutely as did her 
father, Henry VIII." 

It was deemed expedient that the Coronation take 
place as soon as possible, in order that Elizabeth 
might have the allegiance of the whole country. 
Catholics as well as Protestants. It was very diffi- 
cult to find an ecclesiastic to perform this cere- 



60 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

mony, as the Archbishop of Canterbury was dead, 
and the next dignitary in order of rank, the Arch- 
bishop of York, refused to crown her as supreme 
head of the church ; the remaining CathoHc Bishops 
refused to perform the function and also to con- 
secrate any Protestant Bishops. Finally, at the 
last moment a compromise was reached, whereby 
Dr. Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, and also the 
presiding Bishop at the Royal Chapel promised to 
set the crown on the Queen's head if she would take 
the same oath that Catholic Sovereigns took. As 
there seemed to be no choice in the matter, Eliza- 
beth consented and preparations were hurriedly 
made for the ceremony. 

The Catholic Peers, who but lately had been her 
bitterest foes, paid humble and flattering submis- 
sion to Queen Elizabeth as their Liege Lady. Her 
Majesty exhibited a large-souled magnanimity in 
her treatment of these former relentless persecu- 
tors of hers who had so ardently thirsted to shed 
her Royal blood. Her manner toward them was 
gracious and she showed herself great enough to 
be able to overlook the insults and injuries heaped 
upon her defenceless head when she was only a 
Princess. It would seem that these men them- 
selves must have been surprised at this clemency, 
which they certainly had no right to expect from 
one whose life they had sought with untiring zeal. 

But, although Her Majesty could forget the 
injuries done to the Princess Elizabeth, she did 
not forget the few scant favours; and, in due 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 61 

time, rewarded all those who had served her. Dur- 
ing her entire imprisonment, Sir William Cecil was 
working constantly, and as persistently as he 
dared, to alleviate her sufferings and procure her 
freedom. He, as has been seen, received a fitting 
recompense. Thus Elizabeth remembered and 
kept near her Court those who had shown them- 
selves faithful friends in the dark days of un- 
certainty and danger before her accession. 

On Wednesday, November 23, Her Majesty re- 
moved from Hatfield to Charter House in London 
where she was entertained for a few days by Lord 
North. 

On Monday, the 28th, Queen Elizabeth rode from 
Lord North's to make her formal entrance into 
the Tower. All the streets through which the 
Royal train was to pass were newly graveled, bands 
of musicians, gaily decorated arches, banners and 
flags were stationed along the way. Vast throngs 
of people crowded the streets, waving their hand- 
kerchiefs and shouting with joy. First in the 
Royal cortege came the heralds, clad in magnificent 
vestments loaded with gold and silver lace, then 
the gentlemen. Knights and Nobles, all in gorgeous 
array, then the Lord Mayor, holding the sceptre, 
and after him rode Her Majesty, appareled in 
purple velvet, with a scarf of gold lace about her 
neck. She was mounted on a handsome charger 
trapped with crimson velvet ; behind her rode Lord 
Robert Dudley, recently made her Master of the 
Horse, and after him came the Guard carrying 



62 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

their halberds. As the splendid cavalcade set 
forth from Lord North's, the artillery in the great 
fortress was shot off and kept up a continuous 
booming for over half an hour. 

As the Queen entered the Tower, not through 
the Traitor's Gate this time, but through the 
grand State entrance, she turned to her retinue 
and said, with grave intonation : " Some have 
fallen from being Princes of this land to be pris- 
oners in this place. I am raised from being pris- 
oner in this place to be Prince of this land. That 
dejection was a work of God's justice; this ad- 
vancement is a work of his mercy ; as they were to 
yield patience for the one, so I must bear myself 
to God thankful, and to men merciful for the 
other." 

When Queen Elizabeth reached the Royal apart- 
ments, she fell on her knees, saying, " Oh, Lord, 
almighty and everlasting God, I give thee most 
hearty thanks that thou hast been so merciful 
unto me as to spare me to behold this j oyf ul day ; 
and I acknowledge that thou hast dealt as wonder- 
fully and as mercifully with me as thou didst with 
thy true and faithful servant, Daniel, thy prophet, 
whom thou didst deliver out of the den from the 
cruelty of greedy and raging lions. Even so was 
I overwhelmed, and only by thee delivered. To 
thee, therefore, only be thanks, honour, and praise 
forever. Amen." 



VI 

THE ROYAL PROGRESS ON THE DAY 
BEFORE THE CORONATION 

On Saturday, January 1% 1558, about two 
o'clock, Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by a train 
of Lords and Ladies, richly attired, rode from the 
Tower of London through the city toward West- 
minster. The vast concourse of people gathered 
in the streets expressed their great joy and devo- 
tion by welcoming shouts, prayers, and loving 
words. 

The Queen smiled graciously upon those at a 
distance from her, and made affable and gentle 
answers to those that stood near. To the ones 
that cried, " God save Her Grace ! " she replied, 
" God save you all ! " 

On every side her subjects testified their loyal 
and loving attachment to her and their great de- 
light at her accession. She accepted gratefully 
the offerings of flowers and the like given by even 
the lowliest of her people, and often stopped her 
chariot to listen to private requests. A poorly 
clad woman handed her a branch of rosemary which 
the Queen set up high in her chariot, and kept there 
throughout her whole journey to Westminster. 

63 



64 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Thus, amid the joyful acclamations of her sub- 
jects, Elizabeth passed on to Fenchurch, where 
a platform richly decorated was erected. A child 
stood upon it to welcome Her Majesty in the name 
of the city. As the child began his speech, the 
first line of which ran, " O peerless Sovereign 
Queen," Elizabeth ordered the chariot to halt that 
she might hear the words plainly. At the last 
line, " God thee preserve, we pray, and wish 
thee ever well," the people raised a great cheer- 
ing. 

The Queen gave the city gracious thanks for 
their good wishes, and was visibly touched by the 
loving speech of the little child. 

From here she rode on to Gracechurch Street, 
where another stage was set up, extending across 
the street from one side to the other. On the 
lowest level was a royal throne upon which were 
figures representing Henry VII and his wife, 
Elizabeth of York. Over the head of the former 
appeared a red rose, the emblem of the House of 
Lancaster, and over the latter the white rose, the 
symbol of the House of York. The hands of 
the figures were joined to represent the union of 
these two rival houses. 

Branches from these roses led up to a second 
platform on which sat a representation of Henry 
VIII and his second wife, the Lady Anne Boleyn, 
mother of Queen Elizabeth. 

From this stage a branch went up to the third 
tier on which was a throne with a personage sit- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 65 

ting there representing Elizabeth herself, crowned 
and royally appareled. 

As the train of Her Majesty drew near, a child 
stepped forward on the platform to explain the 
meaning of the pageant. But the noise from the 
multitude of spectators was so loud that the Queen 
could not hear the child distinctly, nor see the 
figures clearly. When the meaning was finally ex- 
plained to her, she ordered her chariot to be driven 
back that she might have a good view of the exhi- 
bition. Then again she thanked the city in her 
most courteous manner. 

Thence she rode on toward Cornhill, still ac- 
companied by the loyal shouts of the people. The 
next pageant was called " The Seat of Worthy 
Governance," and upon the chair was a child, rep- 
resenting the Queen's person. The throne was built 
in such a way that it seemed to be supported by 
the four virtues. Pure Religion, Love of Subjects, 
Wisdom and Justice, who were treading under 
their feet the corresponding vices respectively, Ig- 
norance and Superstition, Rebellion and Insolency, 
Folly and Vainglory, Adulation and Bribery. 
Each of the figures portraying these qualities had 
their names plainly written on their breasts. The 
title of the pageant was set forth in a wreath in 
front of the platform. There was a band of mu- 
sicians above the two sides, who began to play after 
a child had finished explaining the show. The 
theme of this was that Her Majesty would sit 
firmly on her throne so long as she upheld the vir- 



66 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

tues and put down their opposing vices. Eliza- 
beth gave hearty thanks for this pageant and 
promised to make her seat secure by the means 
suggested. 

The next pageant was that of the eight Beati- 
tudes. Children represented the blessings, and 
one child as before, explained the meaning to the 
Sovereign. All these eight Beatitudes were ap- 
pHed to the Queen, who received this flattery most 
graciously and listened very attentively to the 
explanatory speech, after which she gently thanked 
the people for their pretty compliment. 

At Cheapside was a pageant signifying Time. 
"Time!" said Her Majesty, "and time hath 
brought me hither ! " 

In the opening address, the Queen was told that 
a Bible in English would be presented to her later 
on by a child portraying truth. She seemed much 
pleased and said she should often read it. So she 
passed on through the city to the upper end of 
Cheapside. 

Here the Recorder of the city gave her a purse 
of crimson satin embroidered with gold, and con- 
taining a thousand marks. 

Elizabeth lifted it into the chariot with both 
hands, for it was very heavy, and then said, "I 
thank my Lord Mayor, his brethren, and you all ! 
And whereas your request is that I should con- 
tinue your good Lady and Queen, be ye ensured 
that I will be as good unto you as ever Queen was to 
her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 67 

trust, shall there lack any power! And persuade 
yourselves that for the safety and quietness of 
you all, I will not spare, if need be, to shed my 
blood! God thank you all! " 

This right royal speech caused a great shout 
of rejoicing to arise, all hearts beat high with 
devotion for their " Sovereign Ladye deare." 
And so Her Majesty, amid the unceasing acclama- 
tions, continued on her journey until she came to 
the next pageant, fashioned in two tiers. 

On one level was the representation of a dead 
tree, its branches all withered, and at its foot the 
effigy of a poorly-clad man, of forlorn and dejected 
appearance. Over his head was written : 

Ruinosa RespubHca 

A Decayed Commonweal. 

On the second tier was another tree, flourishing 
and bearing fruit. Under this stood a vigourous- 
looking personage, and over his head was written, 

Respublica Bene Instituta 
A Flourishing Commonweal. 

An old man, portraying Father Time, came out 
of a cave between these two stages as the Queen 
approached. He led by the hand a female figure 
splendidly attired. She represented the Daugh- 
ter of Time, and on her breast was her name, 
Veritas, truth. In her hand she carried a book. 



68 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Verbum Veritatis, the Word of Truth. After she 
had expounded the meaning of this pageant to Her 
Majesty she handed the Bible, the Word of Truth, 
to the Queen, who received it, kissed it, and laid it 
upon her breast, again promising to read it fre- 
quently, and always to hold it most dear. 

At St. Paul's School a child, who had been ap- 
pointed by the master, delivered an oration in 
Latin to which the Sovereign listened with great 
attention. Then the child kissed the paper on 
which the speech was written and handed it to her. 

Some one of the Royal train near the person of 
the Queen remarked what an expense the city had 
gone to in preparing these exhibitions, and Eliza- 
beth replied that " she did well consider the same 
and should remember it." 

The fifth pageant was a stage with four towers 
and a square platform of gradually ascending 
height. At the very top was a throne with a tall 
palm-tree behind. On the chair was a personage 
attired as a Queen, with crown and sceptre, and 
on a tablet above her head was written, " Deborah, 
The Judge and Restorer of Israel." On the lower 
tiers of the stage, were six persons portraying the 
nobility, clergy and common people. A child came 
forward at the lowest end of the platform, and 
explained that the pageant represented Deborah 
consulting with the different classes of her people 
for the welfare of Israel, and that the subjects of 
Elizabeth prayed that she would emulate the good 
example of the worthy Deborah. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 69 

From here the Queen and her party rode on 
towards Temple Bar. At Christ's Hospital, a 
school established for charitable purposes', the 
children with their teachers stood outside in a 
group. As Her Majesty noticed that one of the 
children was about to speak, she halted her chariot 
and commanded silence. The child then spoke in 
Latin to the effect that as this institution had 
been founded and advanced by the Queen's brother, 
Edward VI, they doubted not that she too would 
show them clemency and kindness, and wished her 
a long and prosperous reign. Queen Elizabeth 
received the copy of the oration with a gracious 
smile from the hands of the child and promised 
to relieve and aid them. 

At Temple Bar, which was draped and festooned 
in honour of Her Majesty, stood two gigantic fig- 
ures representing Gotmagot, the Albion, and 
Corineus, the Briton. They held in their hands a 
tablet on which was written in Latin and English 
a description of all the pageants prepared, to- 
gether with their meaning. On the south side of 
Fleet Street was a group of children singing, and 
one of them dressed, as a poet, delivered some fare- 
well verses to the Queen in the name of the whole 
city. 

In these lines were expressed wishes that she 
would reign worthily and trample all vices under 
foot. Several times during the speech. Her Maj- 
esty raised her hands to Heaven and bade the 
people say " Amen " I 



70 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

At the conclusion of the address she said, '* Be 
ye well assured, I will stand your good Queen ! " 

Then she passed on through Temple Bar to 
Westminster, followed by the shouts of her sub- 
jects and the firing of the ordnance guns. Thus 
the Royal Elizabeth rode proudly on through her 
loyal city of London, whose people were full of 
delirious joy at her accession, which had been so 
long and ardently desired. 



VII 
THE CORONATION 

On Sunday, January 15th, Queen Elizabeth, in 
the presence of a great company of high dignita- 
ries, Lords and Ladies, was crowned at West- 
minster Abbey by Dr. Oglethorpe, Bishop of Car- 
lisle. Her Majesty partook first of a regal 
banquet in Westminster Hall, which was richly 
hung and decorated. 

While the Sovereign was at dinner, Sir Ed- 
ward Dimmocke, in a full set of armour, rode into 
the hall, mounted upon a handsome charger 
trapped with cloth of gold. He flung down the 
gauntlet, offering to fight any one who should 
deny that Elizabeth was lawful ruler of England. 
No one accepting the challenge. Her Majesty took 
a gold cup filled with wine, and, after touching 
her lips to it, passed it to the knight as his fee. 
Then the Lord Mayor of London filled another 
cup and carried it to the Queen, who, after going 
through the same ceremony as before, returned 
the cup to the Mayor as his fee. 

The banquet finished. Her Highness took her 
seat upon a chair of State placed in front of the 

71 



72 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

high altar. After she had been proclaimed Queen 
of England at four different places by a Bishop, 
the trumpets sounding loudly at each proclama- 
tion and mingling with the acclamations of the 
spectators, she arose from her chair, and kneeling 
before the Bishop, made an offering which he 
placed in a golden basin. Then she returned to 
her seat under the canopy and listened to a long 
sermon delivered from the pulpit. At the close 
of this. Her Majesty knelt by the chair and said 
the Lord's Prayer. Upon rising, the Bishop pre- 
sented to her a book on which she took her oath 
of office. After the Bishop had read passages 
from various books, the Queen retired to change 
her attire. 

A magnificent carpet covered with cushions of 
gold was now spread before the altar, the Bishop 
standing at the left side. 

Elizabeth, having put on more elaborate apparel, 
now entered, all the majesty of her high position 
reflected on her fair, proud face. She wore " a 
mantle of cloth of gold, tissued with gold and 
silver, furred with powdered armyons (ermines.?) 
with lace of silk and gold, with buttons and tassels 
to the same." Under the mantle was " a kirtle 
of the same tissue, the train and skirts furred with 
powdered armyons, the rest lined with sarcenet, 
with a bodice and sleeves to the same." 

As she knelt before the altar, on the golden 
cushions, a red silk robe was spread over her. 
When the Bishop had solemnly anointed her, a 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 73 

sword with a girdle was put upon one of the shoul- 
ders of the Maiden Monarch and another under 
her other shoulder, while two richly embroidered 
garters were placed upon her wrists and a third 
sword was hung by her side. 

The trumpets sent forth a triumphant blast 
and the historic old Abbey resounded with shouts 
of " Long live Queen Elizabeth ! " as the crown 
was placed on her head. Directly after this, the 
Bishop slipped a plain gold ring upon her finger 
in token of her marriage and the consecration of 
her life to the Kingdom of England ; at the same 
time the sceptre was delivered into her hand. 
After this, Her Majesty, still kneeling, laid the 
sword of State upon the altar. When the Bishop 
had read a few more passages, the Queen again 
took her seat upon the throne. Then, first the 
Lords and next the Bishops, going up to the Sov- 
ereign, knelt before her and kissed her on the 
left cheek, according to the Coronation custom. 
This ceremony over. Mass was said, Her Majesty 
holding in her right hand the sceptre, in her left 
the mound or globe of the world. The Gospel was 
read first in Latin and then in English, after which 
she kissed the book. 

As Queen Elizabeth again knelt before the altar 
and made a second offering, three naked swords 
and one in the scabbard were held before her. 
When Mass was finished. Her Majesty, retiring 
behind the high altar, divested herself of her Cor- 
onation robes, and then, followed by her retinue, 



74 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

set out for Westminster Hall, where another ban- 
quet was prepared. 

On the next day, jousts and tournaments were 
given in honour of the Coronation. On the twenty- 
fifth of the month was held the first Parliament, 
the Queen riding to it in all the splendour of her 
Parliamentary robes, attended by the Lords, spir- 
itual and temporal, likewise in their State array. 

Her Majesty's costume consisted of " a mantle 
of crimson velvet, furred throughout with pow- 
dered armyons, the lace on the mantle being of 
silk and gold, covered with buttons and tassels. 
The kirtle and surcoat were also of crimson velvet, 
with a train and skirts of the same material, furred 
with powdered armyons. The rest was lined with 
sarcenet. The silken cap was striped down with 
passamaine lace of gold from which hung down 
golden tassels ; this, too, was furred with powdered 
armyons, as were likewise the hood, bodice and 
sleeves, all of crimson velvet." 

The Parliament was opened by a unanimous dec- 
laration that " Queen Elizabeth was, and ought 
to be, as well by the word of God, as the common 
and statute laws of the Realm, the lawful, un- 
doubted, and true heir to the Crown, lawfully 
descended from the Blood Royal, according to the 
order of succession settled in the thirty-fifth of 
Henry VIH." 

Just before the dissolving of the Parliament, 
the Speaker of the House of Commons, together 
with some other members, came forward, and kneel- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 75 

ing before the Queen, in deferential and humble 
manner, entreated her to marry in order that the 
succession might be settled later without dispute 
or risk of civil war. 

But she answered that from her earliest youth 
she had resolved never to marry, for she believed 
that by remaining free from such worldly cares 
she might best perform to the glory of God those 
duties to which she had been appointed. She said 
also that she had, moreover, given her hand in 
wedlock to a husband, and he was the Kingdom of 
England. Then she showed them the wedding 
ring which she had placed upon her finger at the 
Coronation, and added, " As many as are English- 
men are children and kinsmen to me." She prom- 
ised, however, that if she ever did take a husband 
he should be one approved by her people. She 
concluded her speech, saying, " To me it shall 
be a full satisfaction, both for the memorial of my 
name and for my glory also, if, when I shall let 
my last breath, it be engraven upon my marble 
tomb, * Here lyeth Elizabeth, which reigned a Vir- 
gin and died a Virgin.' " 



VIII 

THE RECEPTION TO QUEEN ELIZABETH 
AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 

On the 12th of July, 1564, the Vice-Chancellor 
of Cambridge University received a letter from 
Sir William Cecil, the Chancellor of this institu- 
tion as well as Secretary of State, announcing that 
Queen Elizabeth intended to visit the university 
and remain there three days, the 8th, 9th and 
10th of August. The secretary also sent instruc- 
tions to arrange suitable lodgings for Her Majesty 
and to prepare some entertainment. 

Thereupon the Proctors of the establishment, 
consulting with Cecil himself, the Bishop of London 
and others, planned an imposing entertainment for 
the Sovereign. They were further encouraged in 
their preparations by the receipt of a letter from 
Lord Robert Dudley, afterward the celebrated 
Earl of Leicester, assuring them that all their ex- 
ercises for the Queen's diversion would be accepted 
in good grace by her. 

Elizabeth decided to arrive on Saturday, August 

5th, and that day the bells of the colleges and of 

the town were rung most of the afternoon. 

Her Majesty proceeded from a Mr. Worthing- 
76 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 77 

ton's house in Haslingfield, where she had passed 
the night. The Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of 
Sussex, the Bishop of Ely and other Nobles met 
her on the way and accompanied her to the town 
of Cambridge. 

Robert Lane, the Mayor of the town, the Alder- 
men, Burgesses and Recorder, all on horseback, met 
the Royal party at Newnham. There they 
alighted, paid their respects, and the Recorder 
delivered a speech in English. Next the Mayor 
passed his mace, together with a costly cup, to Her 
Majesty, which she received graciously and handed 
back the mace. The cup she gave to one of her 
footmen. 

Then the progress toward Cambridge was con- 
tinued, Robert Lane holding his mace, rode 
before the Sovereign. Meanwhile, Sir William Ce- 
cil, mounted upon his horse, was waiting before 
Queen's College. The trumpeters, with loud and 
solemn blast, proclaimed the approach of the illus- 
trious guest. After them followed the Lords of 
the Realm, in the order of their rank, next the 
Royal Almoner, the Bishop of Rochester, bare- 
headed, and with him the Bishop of Ely, then the 
Garter King-at-Arms, richly appareled and accom- 
panied by many Sergeants-at-Arms, then Lord 
Hunsdon, a cousin to the Sovereign, carrying the 
Sword of State in a magnificently wrought scab- 
bard. After him rode Her Majesty, Queen Eliza- 
beth, attired in " a gown of black velvet pinked, a 
caul upon her head, set with pearls and precious 



78 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

stones, and a hat spangled with gold and a bush of 
feathers." She was attended bj a great company 
of ladies and maids of honour. 

When Her Grace came to the middle of the 
scholars, two of them stepped forward, and kneel- 
ing before her, kissed the papers they held and 
passed them to her. These were two congratu- 
latory orations, one in prose, the other in verse. 
The Queen, after receiving them graciously, de- 
livered them to one of her footmen. Then two 
Bachelors of Arts and two Masters of Arts came 
forward and went through the same ceremony. 
When the Royal train came among the Doctors, the 
Lords and Ladies dismounted, only Her Majesty 
remaining on horseback. 

At the gate to King's College, Sir William Cecil 
knelt down and made a speech of welcome. The 
beadles, likewise kneeling, kissed their staffs and 
handed them to the Secretary Cecil, who also 
kissed them and then passed them to the distin- 
guished visitor, who was unable to hold so many. 
She, laughing merrily, gave them back, bidding 
the magistrates of the University " minister jus- 
tice uprightly, as she trusted they did, or she 
Would take the matter into her own hands and see 
to it " ; adding with another laugh that " al- 
though the Chancellor did halt (he happened to 
have a sore leg at the time), yet she trusted that 
justice did not halt." 

Next, the Orator of the college stepped up, and 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 79 

making three low bows, knelt down and delivered 
in Latin a speech which lasted for nearly half an 
hour. First, he praised many virtues m the Sov- 
ereign, at which she shook her head and cried out, 
" Non est Veritas, et utinam — it is not true, 
would that — ". Then he spoke of the joy felt by 
the University at her coming. 

When he had finished, the Queen lauded him 
highly and declared he must have a remarkable 
memory to deliver such a speech, adding that 
" she would answer him again in Latin, but for 
fear she should speak false Latin; and then they 
would all laugh at her." As a signal mark of her 
esteem, she called him to her and gave him her 
hand to kiss. 

Then she alighted from her horse and asked the 
degree of every Doctor there. 

Four of the principal Doctors held a canopy 
over her as she entered the church and knelt down 
at the altar. The Lady Strange had the honour 
of carrying her train, and the other ladies fol- 
lowed, according to their rank. 

The Provost made his obeisance with three low 
bows and inquired if Her Majesty wished to pray 
publicly. But as she preferred a silent prayer, he 
did likewise, after which the chorus sang a carol 
in English. 

As Queen Elizabeth took her seat under the 
canopy, she declared that this chapel was more 
beautiful than any other in the Kingdom. This 



80 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

naturally pleased her entertainers, as did her gra- 
cious and interested demeanour throughout her en- 
tire visit. 

After the singing of the " Te Deum " in English 
Her Majesty, with her ladies, retired to the lodg- 
ings prepared for her. 

On the next day, Sunday, after the morning 
prayer, all the Doctors, in their scarlet gowns, 
stood at the court gate to await the coming of 
the Queen. She went on foot to church, preceded 
by all the gentlemen under the degree of Knights, 
then the Doctors, the Knights and the Lords. 
Her Majesty said " the sermon was the first she 
had ever heard in Latin and she thought she should 
never hear a better." 

After the evening prayer, the " Aulularia " of 
Plantus was presented upon a great stage, ex- 
tending from one side of the church to the other. 
Elizabeth, with certain Lords, Ladies, gentlewomen 
and pensioners, took her seat upon the platform 
and heard the play to the end. The parts were 
taken by men chosen from the different colleges. 

On Monday, a great debate on art was held in 
St. Mary's Church. On the east end of the great 
church an ample space was allotted for the august 
visitor. It was hung with arras and cloth of gold, 
in every respect a regal bower. All the debators 
were to stand at that part of the stage. 

At the ringing of the University bell Queen 
Elizabeth entered, accompanied by her train of 
Lords and Ladies. As she took her seat, the grad- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 81 

uates knelt and cried, " Vivat Regina — long live 
the Queen ! " She showed great interest in all the 
proceedings and asked many questions concerning 
those taking part. 

Four Masters of Arts so pleased her with their 
orations that when the Proctors rather abruptly 
ended their speeches, she appeared much annoyed, 
frowning and saying, " if she had the moderation, 
they should not have been so abridged." 

As she could not hear the Doctors plainly, she 
said, " Loquimini altius — speak louder," and 
when that did not avail, left her seat and stood 
near them. 

On Wednesday, she rode about to the different 
colleges and was received with orations and gifts 
of gloves and candy. On her progress. Her Maj- 
esty talked with many scholars in Latin, and, 
upon reaching her apartments, dismissed them in 
the same language. 

At the conclusion of the entertainment in St. 
Mary's Church she was entreated by the Lords, 
and in particular, by the Duke of Norfolk and 
Lord Robert, to address the University in Latin. 
At first, she refused, saying that " if she might 
speak her mind in English, she would not stick 
at the matter." When Cecil told her that the 
University could not be addressed in English, she 
bade him speak as he was " the Chancellor and the 
Chancellor is the Queen's mouth." But he re- 
plied that " he was Chancellor of the University 
and not hers." 



8a QUEEN ELIZABETft 

Finally, after being urged on all sides, she 
spoke at some length, saying that her " womanly 
modesty " was subdued by the pleading of her No- 
bles and her own affection for the University. 
She besought the scholars to continue their studies 
diligently and promised to leave some famous 
monument to learning before she died. 

The auditors, greatly astonished and delighted 
at the excellence of Her Majesty's Latin and the 
expression of her good will towards them, cried 
loudly, " Vivat Regina — long live the Queen ! " 
But Elizabeth, with her usual quickness, replied 
" Taceat Regina — silent be the Queen," and 
wished that " all they that heard her oration had 
drunk of the flood of Lethe." 

Then in a merry and cheerful mood, she took 
her leave of the company and went to her apart- 
ments. 

On Thursday, August 10th, Her Majesty de- 
parted from Cambridge. About nine o'clock in 
the morning she mounted her horse and was met 
at the gate of her lodging by the Provost and some 
of his colleagues. He made an excellent farewell 
address which so pleased the Queen that she openly 
called him " her scholar," and offered him the 
Royal hand to kiss. 

As she rode from King's College past the schools, 
Dr. Feme and others of the University knelt and 
wished her in Latin a safe and auspicious progress. 
She replied gently, " Valete omnes — good-by to 
you all." 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 83 

The Mayor, on horseback, carrying his mace, 
and followed by the Aldermen, accompanied Her 
Grace toward Magdalen College where the Master 
and students stood ready to deliver an oration. 
But she excused herself for not waiting to hear it, 
pleading the heat of the day and the throngs of 
people who were gathering. She asked, however, 
for the paper on which it was written, and then 
rode away, blessed by the prayers and good wishes 
of all. 



IX 

ANECDOTES OF THE QUEEN AND HER 
COURTIERS 

Conspicuous among the brilliant throng of 
courtiers who surrounded the Virgin Queen, was 
Lord Robert Dudley, son of the once all-powerful 
Duke of Northumberland, who, in the beginning 
of Mary's reign, atoned on the scaffold for his 
treasonable ambitions. Lord Robert was said to 
have been bom in the same hour with Elizabeth, 
and was a prisoner in the Tower at the same time 
she was. He was married to a wealthy heiress, 
Amy Robsart, whom he had wedded with great 
publicity in the reign of Edward VI. The Lady 
Amy, however, was kept in seclusion by her Lord 
and was never seen at Court. 

Soon after her accession. Queen Elizabeth made 
the handsome Dudley her Master of the Horse 
and for many years he stood high in royal favour. 
But it is not likely that Her Majesty entertained 
any feeling stronger than friendly regard for her 
proud favourite. She made no secret of her liking 
for good-looking young men and her dislike for 
homely ones. The ardent admiration Dudley pro- 
fessed for her was flattering to the woman and 

84 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 85 

gratifying to the Sovereign. Edward Spencer 
Beesly says : " Elizabeth, it is my firm convic- 
tion, never loved Dudley, or any other man, in any 
sense of the word, high or low. She had neither a 
tender heart nor a sensual temperament. Further, 
she believed that his devotion to her person would 
make him a specially faithful servant. I do not 
doubt that Elizabeth estimated his capacity at 
about its right value. What she over-estimated 
was his affection for herself and consequently his 
trustworthiness." 

In 1560 Lady Dudley died at Cumnor Hall un- 
der suspicious circumstances, and Lord Robert 
was suspected of having caused her death, although 
there was not a particle of evidence to prove it. 
It was now feared by many that the Queen would 
marry the dashing and ambitious widower, de^ 
scribed by Naunton as being of " a very goodly 
person, tall, and singularly well favoured, but who, 
toward middle age, gi'ew red-faced and corpulent." 
This belief became so widespread that the English 
Ambassador in France wrote Her Majesty that 
" he had heard reported at Duke Montmorance's 
table that the Queen of England had a meaning to 
marry her horse-keeper." Even the prudent Ce- 
cil ventured a jesting reproof to the Queen on this 
subject, when he was telling her of the mesalliance 
of her own cousin, the Duchess of Suffolk, with her 
equerry. " What ! " cried Queen Elizabeth, in 
amazement, "has she married her horse-keeper.?" 
" Yea, Madam," replied the Councillor, " and she 



86 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

says you would like to do the same with yours." 
Shortly after this the English Queen recom- 
mended Dudley as a husband to the Queen of 
Scots, promising Mary that if she would marry 
him she should by Act of Parliament be declared 
heir to the Throne. Elizabeth then created Dud- 
ley Baron of Denbigh, and on the day after. Earl 
of Leicester at Westminster, in the presence of 
Sir James Melville, the Scottish Ambassador. Her 
Majesty helped to put on his ceremonial robes, 
according to Melville, and, as he knelt in solemn 
state before her, placed her hand under his chin 
and asked Melville how he liked him. 

After Dudley was made a belted Earl, Queen 
Elizabeth took the Scottish Ambassador up to her 
chamber and opened a little desk " where there were 
divers little pictures wrapped up in paper, their 
names written with her own hand. Upon the first 
she took up was written, ' My Lord's picture.' 
This was Leicester's portrait. I held the candle, 
and pressed to see my Lord's picture. Albeit she 
was loth to let me see it, but I became importunate 
for it to carry home to my Queen ; she refused, say- 
ing, ' she had but one of his.' I replied, ' she had 
the original.' She was then at the farther end of 
her bedchamber talking with Cecil. Elizabeth 
then took out my Queen's miniature and kissed 
it," writes Melville in his memoirs. 

Mary, however, declined the husband oflPered her 
by the Maiden Queen, and shortly after, married 
Lord Darnley, the young son of the Countess of 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 87 

Lennox, whoi was the nearest relative to Queen 
Elizabeth on the Royal Tudor side. 

Although Leicester enjoyed a high degree of 
royal favour, he was by no means exempt from 
sharp rebukes from the Queen when his overween- 
ing pride and arrogance seemed to necessitate a 
check. One day, Bowyer, of the black rod, who 
had been commanded by Queen Elizabeth to attend 
to the admissions to the Privy Chamber, prevented 
a follower of Leicester from entering, on the 
ground that he was not known nor was he a sworn 
servant to the Queen. This man stood high in the 
esteem of the Earl, and, relying on his patron's 
favour at Court, threatened to have Bowyer dis- 
charged. The noise of this brawl reached the ears 
of Leicester, who came up, and, when he learned 
the cause, in a loud voice called the gentleman of 
the Black Rod a knave and reiterated his fol- 
lower's threats of having him discharged. He 
then started toward the Queen, but Bowyer ran 
ahead of him, and, while all present trembled at 
his audacity, fell on his knees before Her Majesty, 
and, demanding to know whether Leicester were 
King, or Elizabeth Queen, related the whole story. 

As he concluded, Queen Elizabeth sprang to her 
feet with flashing eyes and threatening mien, the 
lion-like spirit of Henry VIII thoroughly aroused 
in the breast of his daughter by this affront to her 
authority. Turning to the Earl of Leicester, she 
cried, in loud and angry tones, " God's Death, my 
Lord, I have wished you well, but my favour is 



88 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

not so locked up for you that others shall not par- 
take thereof, for I have many servants, unto whom 
I have and will, at my pleasure, bequeath my fa- 
vour; and likewise resume the same, and, if you 
think to rule here, I will take a course to see you 
forthcoming. I will have here but one mistress and 
no master, and look that no ill happen to him, lest 
it be severely required at your hands." 

" After this," writes Naunton, " Leicester's 
feigned humility was for a long time one of his 
best virtues." 

At the time of the festivities at Kenilworth, 
which Scott has rendered famous, the Earl was liv- 
ing in secret wedlock with Lady Sheffield, but later 
refused to acknowledge her as his wife, and, in 
1578, married Lettice Knollys, the widow of Wal- 
ter Devereux, Earl of Essex. There were suspi- 
cious circumstances connected with the death of 
Essex, which led to the belief that he was poisoned. 
As he and Leicester were open enemies, some people 
hinted that an attendant of Leicester had put 
poison in his wine. Elizabeth first learned of this 
marriage through Simier, an agent of the Duke 
of Alen^on. Then, in a rage, she ordered Leicester 
to remain in the Tower of Greenwich until she had 
him conveyed to the Tower of London as a pun- 
ishment for his audacity in marrying without her 
consent. It was an established rule under Eliza- 
beth and her predecessors that none of the nobility 
could marry without the consent of the Sovereign. 

The Earl of Sussex, although Leicester's great- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 89 

est enemy, dissuaded the Queen from punishing 
him further, for he saw that it would now be im- 
possible for Leicester to wed Her Majesty, a possi- 
bility which he and the other Nobles had long 
feared. It is reported that Leicester in revenge 
hired a man to shoot at Simier while he was in 
the Royal barge with the Queen, the Earl of Lin- 
coln, and Sir Christopher Hatton. One of the 
boatmen was shot through both arms and fell 
almost at Her Majesty's feet. Queen Elizabeth, 
although she believed the shot had been aimed at 
her, completely retained her presence of mind. 
She took the scarf from her neck and gave it to 
the boatman to bind up his wounds, bidding him 
" be of good cheer, for that he should never want, 
for the bullet was meant for her, though it had 
hit him." Her coolness and courage were greatly 
admired by those present. When the offender was 
captured and brought to trial he declared that 
the gun had gone off by accident. Upon hearing 
this. Queen Elizabeth not only pardoned him, but 
even interceded with his master to retain him in 
his service, remarking that " she^ would not believe 
anything against her subjects that loving par- 
ents would not believe of their children." By 
public proclamation, however, she declared that 
the French Envoys and their servants were under 
her special protection ^nd any one molesting them 
would do so on peril of his life. 

In 1586 the Queen, with the approval of all her 
ministers and, in especial, of Walsingham, ap- 



90 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

pointed Leicester as Governor to the revolted 
states of Holland, which had appealed to her for 
aid against Spain. He not only paid all his per- 
sonal expenses, but, by mortgaging his estates, 
advanced large sums for military purposes. Al- 
though he made many serious mistakes, which 
brought him into disfavour with all parties, they 
were not of a military sort. In addition to^ this, 
his assumption of royal dignity and his attempt to 
hold a court there that should rival his Sovereign's, 
so enraged Queen Elizabeth, when she heard of his 
arrogant behaviour, that she cried, " I will let the 
upstart know how easily the hand which has ex- 
alted him can beat him down to the dust." She 
then sent him a letter of sharp rebuke, command- 
ing his instant return to answer the articles of 
impeachment prepared against him in England, 
and did not withdraw her active displeasure 
against him until he had expressed the most hum- 
ble contrition for his conduct. Upon his hasty 
return, he flung himself at her feet, and, with 
tears in his eyes implored her " not to bury him 
alive whom she had raised from the dust." His 
abject humiliation so softened Queen Elizabeth 
that she forgave him, and, when he came off tri- 
umphantly at the inquiry conducted by the Coun- 
cil, she visited her displeasure upon Lord Buck- 
hurst who had denounced him. 

The last important act of the Earl of Leices- 
ter was attending the Queen at Tilbury at the 
time of the Armada in August, 1,588'. On Sep- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 91 

tember 4, he died of a fever, brought on, it was 
said, by his chagrin at not receiving the Lord- 
lieutenant ship of England and Ireland, an office 
which the Queen, for a short time, had con- 
templated bestowing upon him. His hot anger 
at failing to obtain this, brought him into a 
violent dispute with Queen Elizabeth. She be- 
came so enraged with him that she refused all 
overtures of reconciliation and he left the Court in 
a fit of rage and despondency. 

It is asserted by some that his end was hastened 
by a draft of poison administered by his wife and 
that he had intended this very potion for her. 

Sir Richard Baker writes of him, " This Earl 
was an exquisite statesman for his own ends. He 
was in so great favour with the Queen that some 
thought she meant to marry him, yet when he 
died, his goods were sold at an outcry to make 
payment of the debts he owed her." 

When the Earl of Sussex, Queen Elizabeth's 
trusted servant and kinsman, lay dying, he said 
to his friends : " I am now passing into another 
world, and I must leave you to your fortunes and 
the Queen's grace and goodness, but beware of the 
gypsy (meaning Leicester, who was dark of hair 
and complexion) for he will be too hard for you 
all ; you know not the beast so well as I do." 

Sir Christopher Hatton, another conspicuous 
figure at the Court of the Maiden Monarch, was 
of a family more ancient than wealthy. He 
studied for the law but came to Court when he was 



92 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

young and of fine appearance. He took part in 
a masque upon his entree to Court, where his 
handsome person, gentle manners and graceful 
dancing so pleased Queen Elizabeth that she made 
him one of her Gentlemen Pensioners, then a mem- 
ber of the Privy Chamber, a Captain of the Guard, 
one of the Privy Council, and lastly. Lord Chan- 
cellor of England. 

The favours bestowed on Hatton by the Queen 
aroused the jealousy of the whole Court. Leices- 
ter, in order to depreciate Sir Christopher's 
terpischorean skill which had drawn royal atten- 
tion to him, offered to introduce a dancing master 
to the Queen and assured her that Hatton's at- 
tainments in that art would appear very incon- 
siderable in comparison with his protege's perfor- 
mances. 

" Pish," replied Her Majesty, scornfully, " I 
will not see your man, it is his trade." 

Hatton's appointment as Chancellor had been 
warmly recommended by rival courtiers who 
thought that by absence from the Court and by 
his supposed incapacity for his difficult office, he 
might commit some blunders that would be offen- 
sive to the Queen. But the dignified and success- 
ful way in which he filled his office proved that 
his Sovereign's liking for him was founded on 
something more substantial than mere skill in 
dancing. 

Hatton imitated the example of his Liege Lady 
and never married. He used to follow the Queen 



I 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 9S 

about with almost doglike devotion, and, by study- 
ing her moods, learned when the time was ripe for 
pressing a suit of his own or that of one of his 
friends. 

One day he came out from the Royal Presence 
looking troubled, and, pulling Sir John Haring- 
ton by the girdle, said: "If you have any suit 
to-day, I pray you put it aside. The sun doth 
not shine." 

" 'Tis this accursed Spanish business, so I will 
not adventure Her Highness' choler, lest she 
should collar me also," replied the sprightly Har- 
ington. 

Hatton was a man of such considerable intel- 
lectual ability and so great a patron of learning 
that he was made Chancellor of Oxford. He died 
in 1591. His death was due partly to grief be- 
cause the Queen insisted upon the immediate pay- 
ment of a large sum of money which he owed 
the Royal treasury. His belief that she considered 
this a defalcation hastened his end. 

Says Fuller, " It brake his heart that the Queen, 
who seldom gave loans and never forgave due 
debts, rigourously demanded present payment of 
some arrears which Sir Christopher did not hope 
to have remitted, but did only desire to be 
foreborne, failing herein in the expectation, it 
went to his heart and cast him into a mortal dis- 
ease." 

But the Queen still insisted " for, though in 
other things she were favourable enough, yet sel- 



94i QUEEN ELIZABETH 

dom or never did she remit the debts owing to 
her treasury." 

When Her Majesty was fully informed of the 
seriousness of Hatton's illness, she repented of 
her persistence, and, moved with compassion for 
the dying man, visited him and tried to console 
him with kind and gentle words. She even went 
so far as to bring him broth with' her own hands. 
But the displeasure of his Sovereign had broken 
the Chancellor's heart and he died soon after. 

Queen Elizabeth took pleasure in talking with 
that ingratiating Scottish Ambassador, Sir James 
Melville, who often conversed with her on the sub- 
ject of dress and never lost an opportunity to 
compliment her. She told him, one day, that she 
had costumes made in the fashion of all countries, 
and that she sometimes dressed a I'anglaise, 
a Pespagnole, a I'italienne, and sometimes a la 
fran9aise. Melville said she appeared most beau- 
tiful to him a I'italienne, for the Italian coiiFure 
showed best her lovely hair. She then asked him 
whether she or Mary Stuart was the most beauti- 
ful. He replied that in England there was no 
woman comparable to her, and in Scotland no 
woman comparable to Mary. 

After dinner. Lord Hunsdon led Melville into 
a gallery adjacent to the Queen's apartments, 
where she was playing upon the harpsichord. 
Hunsdon asked him to make no noise, and, softly 
raising a portiere, he gently pushed him into the 
room where the Queen was. Her back was turned 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 95 

and she continued to play. When she turned her 
head and saw Melville, she rose abruptly from 
the harpsichord, and, coming toward him, struck 
him lightly with her hand, saying, " I never play 
before men. How did you come in here? " 

He answered that while he was talking with 
Hunsdon, he had heard such beautiful music that 
he could not resist the temptation to hear it at 
nearer range. He said ithat at the Court of 
France these little familiarities were not displeas- 
ing, but that he was ready to submit to the pun- 
ishment he deserved, and went down on his knees. 
Queen Elizabeth then offered him a cushion to 
sit upon — this was an extraordinary mark of 
favour — for Burleigh was the only man who was 
allowed to sit before her, and he was not granted 
that privilege until he became old and gouty. 
Her Majesty inquired if Mary played on the 
harpsichord better than she did. Melville truth- 
fully replied that she did not. As the conversa- 
tion continued, the Queen complimented him on 
his manner of speaking and asked him if he spoke 
Italian. He replied that he had been but two 
months in Italy and had not had time to learn the 
language. She then began to speak to him in 
German, but he knew that even less than Italian. 
She inquired next who were his favourite authors, 
and if he preferred stories of adventure or books 
of history and theology. He said that all kinds 
pleased him. 

Upon leaving her, he announced that he was 



96 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

going to depart from England immediately. 
Queen Elizabeth made him promise to wait two 
days to see her dance at a Court ball, in order 
that she might learn from him whether she or 
Mary danced best. After the ball was over, truth 
forced Melville to admit that Mary was not so 
graceful a dancer as the English Queen. 

In her daily conversations with the Scottish 
Ambassador, Elizabeth repeatedly affirmed her in- 
tention of remaining a Virgin Queen, unless Mary 
should force her to marry by not following her 
advice in regard to her own marriage, or by fail- 
ing in her duty. At the departure of Melville, 
she said to him, " Assure your Mistress that I love 
her dearly; tell her it is my wish that we live 
henceforth better friends than we have been up 
to this time, and I forever banish from my heart 
all jealousy and all suspicion." 

Queen Elizabeth's motto was " Semper Eadem " 
— always the same, and this saying, together with 
" Dieu et Mon Droit," appeared upon the Royal 
standards. 

One day, says Fuller, one of the Councillors, he 
of the white staff, came into the Queen's presence 
and was commanded by her to confer a position 
then vacant upon one of her servants whom she 
recommended. 

" Pleaseth Your Highness, Madam," replied the 
Lord, " the disposal thereof pertaineth to me by 
virtue of this white staff conferred upon me." 

" True," replied Queen Elizabeth, " yet I never 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 97 

gave you your office so absolutely, but I still 
reserved myself of the quorum. 

" But of the quarum. Madam," returned the 
Councillor, hoping to gain his point by this 
sally. 

But Her Majesty, not to be won over by his 
Latin punctiliousness, impatiently snatched the 
staff from his hand, and cried, " You shall ac- 
knowledge me of the quorum, quarum, quorum be- 
fore you have it again." 

" The Lord waited staffless almost a day (which 
seemed so long unto him as if the sun stood still) 
before the same was re-conferred upon him." 

Sir William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, greatest of 
the Queen's statesmen, was Secretary and Lord 
Treasurer for over thirty years. His fidelity and 
sterling worth were deeply appreciated by his 
Sovereign, although, in a burst of Tudor-like pas- 
sion, she once called him " a froward old fool," 
and, upon another occasion " a coward and mis- 
creant." 

In 1571 when Cecil was made Baron Burleigh 
by letters patent. Queen Elizabeth announced that 
" as well for his long services in the time of our 
progenitors. Kings of England, as also for the 
faithful and acceptable duties and observances 
which he hath constantly performed from the very 
beginning of our reign — we have of our special 
grace and of our own certain knowledge and mere 
motion raised, created, and advanced him to the 
state, dignity, and honour of Baron of Burleigh, 



98 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

and have conferred, given, and bestowed upon him 
the name, style, and title of Baron of Burleigh to 
have and to hold to him and his heirs male issuing 
from his body forever," etc. The next year he 
was created Lord High Treasurer. 

In 1583, Burleigh, feeling the infirmities of old 
age approaching and worn out by the vexations 
and difficulties of his position, or, as some assert, 
grieved by a reproof from the Queen, or by the 
fault-finding of certain members of the Council, 
petitioned Her Majesty that he might resign his 
office, leave Court, and henceforth lead a private 
life. 

But Queen Elizabeth, unwilling to lose this 
faithful friend and trusty servant, wrote him with 
her own hand, this sprightly letter which caused 
him to continue in his State duties : 

Sir Spirit: 

I doubt I do nickname you. For those of your 
kind (they say) have no sense (feeling). But I 
have of late seen an Ecce Signum, that if an ass kick 
you, you feel it so soon. I will recant you from being 
spirit, if ever I perceive that you disdain not such a 
feeling. Serve God, fear the King, and be a good 
fellow to the rest. Let never care appear in you for 
such a rumour, but let them well know that you rather 
desire the righting of such wrong by making known 
their error than you be so silly a soul as to foreslow 
that you ought to do, or not freely deliver what you 
think meetest, and pass of no man so much as not 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 99 

to regard her trust who putteth it in you. God bless 
you and long may you last. 

Omino 
E. R. 

May 8, 1583. 

At the latter end of that month, the Queen, with 
a numerous retinue, visited Burleigh at his estate 
of Theobolds and stayed there five days. On this 
visit Her Maj esty remarked, that " his head and 
her purse could do anything." 

At the time of the Spanish Armada, Queen 
Elizabeth visited Lord Burleigh at his house in 
the Strand, where he was lying sick of gout. As 
Her Majesty advanced to enter the sick room, a 
servant, noticing that the doorway was very low 
and the Queen's head-dress very high, said humbly, 
" May Your Highness be pleased to stoop." 

Queen Elizabeth's answer showed her warrior 
spirit. '' For your master's sake I will stoop, but 
not for the King of Spain's," she replied proudly, 
and, bending her regal form, passed into the cham- 
ber. 

In 1589, at the death of his beloved wife, which 
was a great blow to Burleigh, he grew very melan- 
choly and again craved permission to withdraw 
from active life. The Queen granted him all the 
indulgences possible to his infirmities and took his 
son Robert into special favour, but could not bear 
to consent to the resignation of her aged minister. 



100 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

When Burleigh was dying in 1598, Queen Eliza- 
beth devoted her attention to watching over and 
soothing his last hours. She was deeply grieved 
at the first news of his illness and at once dis- 
patched Lady Arundel to ask about his health, 
and sent him by this lady an excellent cordial, 
together with the message that " she did entreat 
Heaven daily for his longer life — else would her 
people, nay herself, stand in need of cordials too. 
For her comfort had been in her people's hap- 
piness and their happiness in his discretion." 
Such was the generous tribute borne by Lady 
Arundel from the great Queen to her dying Pre- 
mier. 

Burleigh in his last days said of his Sovereign: 
" In all graces, by nature, by calling, by long 
experience, she was of such perfection as none can 
attain unto." And who could be a better judge 
of the greatness of the Queen than he who had 
been at the helm of government with her for forty 
years? In the last letter which the venerable 
statesman wrote with his own hand, he spoke 
feelingly of the kindness Elizabeth showed him in 
his illness. This letter was to his son. Sir Robert 
Cecil, and in it he said : " I pray you diligently 
and effectually let Her Majesty understand how 
her singular kindness doth overcome my power to 
acquit it, who, though she will not be a mother, 
yet she showeth herself by feeding me with her 
own princely hand, as a careful nurse, and, if I 
may be weaned to feed myself, I shall be more 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 101 

ready to serve her on earth, if not, I hope to be 
in Heaven a servitor for her and God's Church." 
In a postscript, he adds, " Serve God by serving of 
the Queen, for all other service is indeed bondage 
to the devil." 

Her Majesty was so saddened by Burleigh's 
death, which occurred in the seventy-seventh year 
of his life, that she often spoke of him with tears 
in her eyes, and turned aside to hide her grief 
when others talked of him. She finally forebade 
his name to be mentioned in the Council Chamber. 

Camden says of Burleigh : " Certainly he was 
a most excellent man, one of those few who have 
both lived and died with glory." 

Sir John Harington writes of him : " When 
shall our Realm see such a man, or when such a 
mistress have such a servant ; well might one weep 
when the other died." 

Queen Elizabeth was not only averse to mar- 
riage herself, but she did not wish her courtiers to 
marry either. She often asked her ladies if they 
liked to think of marriage. Those who were dis- 
creet said they did not, but the fair cousin of 
Sir Mathew Arundel was not so wise, and she 
answered, " she had thought much about marriage, 
if her father did consent tO' the man she loved." 

" You seem honest i' faith," cried the Queen, 
" I will sue for you toi your father." 

Mistress Arundel appeared highly pleased at 
this, but the other ladies had their suspicions of 
Her Majesty's complaisance. 



102 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

When Sir Robert Arundel, the young lady's 
father, came to Court, Queen Elizabeth spoke to 
him of the affair and urged his consent. 

Sir Robert said he would give his consent to 
anything that pleased Her Majesty. 

" Then I will do the rest," said the Queen, and 
calling the girl, told her that her father con- 
sented. 

" Then I shall be happy and please Your Grace," 
cried the delighted maid of honour. 

" So thou shalt, but not to be a fool and marry," 
answered Queen Elizabeth, " I have his consent 
given to me, and I vow thou shalt never get it 
into thy possession; so go to thy business, I see 
thou art a bold one to own thy foolishness so 
readily." 

Mistress Arundel withdrew, discomforted; her 
truthfulness had lost her a husband. 

Says Harington, " I need not praise the Queen's 
frugality. She did love rich clothing, but often 
chid those that bought more finery than became 
their state." It happened once that Lady Mary 
Howard had an elaborate velvet suit with a rich 
border of gold and pearls. All the other ladies 
were envious of it, and the Virgin Queen herself 
was not at all pleased with the idea that a subject 
should have a gown more costly than her own. So 
one day, unbeknown to the Lady Mary, she sent 
for the offending robe, and put it on her Royal 
person. The kirtle and the border were far too 
short for the tall Queen, but she wore it into the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 103 

chamber where the ladies-in-waiting were sitting, 
and asked them all " How they liked her new- 
fancied suit ? " She then asked the astonished 
owner, " If it was not made too short and ill- 
becoming? " 

Lady Mary felt it necessary to assent. 

" Why then, if it become not me, as being too 
short, I am minded it shall never become thee, as 
being too fine ; so it fitteth neither well," said Queen 
Elizabeth, emphatically. 

Lady Mary was completely abashed and never 
ventured to wear the dress again. 

" I believe the vestment was laid up till after 
the Queen's death," concludes Harington. 

Queen Elizabeth had a propensity for bestow- 
ing nicknames on her friends and favourite cour- 
tiers. The Earl of Leicester she sometimes hailed 
as " Robin," the Duke of Alen9on she dubbed 
grenomlle, frog, on account of his ugly face. 
Young Francis Bacon, afterwards the famous 
Baron Verulum, and the son of Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, Keeper of the Great Seal, Her Majesty 
termed " her little lord keeper," and predicted a 
brilliant future for him. The mild-mannered 
Hatton she termed her " sheep." Lady Margaret 
Norris, who was dark of hair and complexion, she 
called her " crow," and, upon the death of this 
lady's son, wrote her a very affectionate letter of 
condolence, which she inscribed to " my own crow." 
Upon the death of Lady Compton, the daughter 
of Lady Paget, the Queen wrote this gracious let- 



104 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

ter of sympathy and consolation to the bereaved 
mother, who was her own kinswoman, as well as 
a dear friend: 

" Call to mind, good Kate, how hardly we 
Princes can brook of the crossing of our com- 
mands ; how ireful will the highest power be (may 
you be sure) when murmurings shall be made of 
his pleasingest will? Let nature therefore not 
hurt herself, but give praise to the giver. Though 
this lesson be from a sely vicar, yet it is sent from 
a loving Sovereign." 

One Sunday when the Bishop of London 
preached before Queen Elizabeth and her ladies, 
he indiscreetly took as his text the vanity of 
dress, and directed his energy to scoring the 
women of the age for their love of fine apparel. 
The Queen, not unnaturally, took this as a covert, 
though none the less bold, rebuke for her own 
fondness for splendid attire and display of jewels. 
She remarked to her ladies, with considerable dis- 
pleasure, that "if the Bishop held more discourse 
on such matters, she would fit him for Heaven, 
but he should walk thither without a staff and 
leave his mantle behind him." 

An especial favourite with the Virgin Queen was 
Sir Philip Sidney, that " perfect gentleman " and 
gallant knight of chivalry. As the nephew of the 
Earl of Leicester, he was attracted to the Court 
at an early age and won the favour, not only of 
the Queen, but that of the entire Court as well. 
He was entrusted by Her Majesty with a mission 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 106 

to Heidelberg and Prague, and, although he failed 
of his purpose, received commendation, rather than 
blame, upon his return. 

The people of Poland wished to make him their 
King, but he replied that " he preferred to be a 
subject to Queen Elizabeth than a Sovereign be- 
yond the seas." 

In 1585 he planned to sail with Sir Francis 
Drake in an expedition against the Spanish, but 
was forbidden by his Sovereign for fear " lest she 
lose the jewel of her dominions." But later in 
the year, she appointed him Governor of Flushing 
under the Earl of Leicester. At the battle of 
Zutphen, he recklessly exposed himself and re- 
ceived a musket-shot in the thigh which, after 
great suffering, finally caused his death. As Sid- 
ney lay burning with thirst on the battle-field, a 
bottle of water was brought to him. He was 
about to drink, when he noticed a dying private 
soldier gazing wistfully at the bottle, and, without 
waiting even to touch his parched lips to the 
water. Sir Philip passed it to the soldier, saying: 
" Thy necessity is greater than mine." 

The body of the gentle Sidney was brought 
back to England and buried with great solemnity 
in St. Paul's, amid general lamentation in which 
the entire Court shared, while all the nobility went 
into mourning for him. " He was sublimely mild, 
a spirit without spot " is Shelley's eloquent tribute. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, courtier, navigator and ex- 
plorer, was the youngest son of an ancient, but 



106 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

not wealthy family of Devonshire. He was edu- 
cated at Oxford, and came to Court, after some 
services in Ireland. 

It is related that when Raleigh, splendidly at- 
tired, reached the Court, he found Queen Eliza- 
beth walking with her courtiers. As she came to 
a muddy place, she stopped and hesitated, seem- 
ing loth to soil her dainty satin slipper. Instantly 
Raleigh snatched off his new velvet cloak and 
spread it upon the ground, indicating that it was 
for his Sovereign's use. The Queen smiled, and 
stepped upon it, thanking him graciously, and 
afterwards " gave him many suits for a reward.'* 
But she made him earn by toils and dangers the 
honours she bestowed upon him, and he made many 
enemies at Court who persistently opposed his ad- 
vancement. 

Raleigh was " a tall, handsome and bold man. 
He had a most remarkable aspect, an exceeding 
high forehead, long faced and sour-eyelidded." 
He owed his rise at Court largely to a successful 
study of the Queen's moods and caprices. No one 
understood better than he just how much flattery 
Her Majesty would condescend to accept. 

One day, noticing that the Royal gaze was rest- 
ing upon him, he scratched upon a window pane, 
with a diamond, " Fain would I climb, yet fear I 
to fall." 

Queen Elizabeth, after reading this, deigned to 
write beneath, " If thy heart fails thee, climb not 
at all." 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 107 

" However," says Fuller, " he at last did climb 
up by the stairs of his own desert." 

In 1595 he came into high disfavour with the 
Queen through an intrigue with one of the maids 
of honour, whom he afterwards married. He was 
confined in the Tower for several months. One 
day, hearing that the Queen was about to pass to 
Greenwich in her barge, he insisted upon going 
to the window to " behold at whatever distance the 
Queen of his affections, the most beautiful object 
which the earth bore upon its surface." The Lieu- 
tenant of the Tower, who was a particular friend 
of his, then threw himself between Raleigh and 
the window. This gave the crafty Sir Walter 
an opportunity to fly into a violent rage, in which 
he swore loudly, that he would not be prevented 
ifrom seeing " his light, his life, his goddess." 
Then the Lieutenant and the prisoner strug- 
gled wildly, tore each other's hair, drew out their 
daggers, and finally it was found necessary to 
separate them by force. This scene, undoubtedly 
gotten up for the sake of effect, was duly reported 
to Queen Elizabeth as an instance of Raleigh's 
devotion and frantic adoration of her Royal 
self. 

Soon after this. Sir Walter's inventive genius 
was repaid by a release from prison, and permis- 
sion to marry the lady on account of whom he had 
been imprisoned. He was not, however, allowed 
at Court, and finally went on an unsuccessful voy- 
age to Guiana in search of gold. On an expedi- 



108 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

tion to America, he named Virginia in honour of 
the Virgin Queen. 

Sir John Harington, to whom we are indebted 
for many interesting descriptions of Queen Ehza- 
beth, was the son of John Harington and Isabella 
Markham, both of whom, in the reign of Mary, 
were imprisoned eleven months in the Tower for 
carrying a letter to the Princess Elizabeth. Their 
zealous devotion to the Princess placed them high 
in her favour, so, at her accession, she retained 
them in her service, and afterwards stood god- 
mother to their son as a reward for what they had 
suffered on her account. 

The younger Harington was educated at Eton 
and Cambridge. The report of his scholarship 
and wit soon reached the ears of the Queen, who 
summoned him to Court, where he gained the esteem 
of the courtiers of both sexes. What he thought 
of a courtier's life may be gleaned from this 
couplet of his: 

" Who liveth in Courts, must mark what they say ; 
Who liveth for ease, had better live away." 

Harington, being well-versed in Italian, made 
an anonymous translation of a tale from Ariosto's 
" Orlando F'urioso," which greatly pleased the 
ladies of the Court. The Queen's sharp eyes soon 
lighted upon this poetry and she demanded to 
know the name of the translator. When she heard 
it was her godson, she sent for him in all haste, 
and deeming it proper to show indignation at 



QUEEN EIJZABETH 109 

some broad passages, accused him " of endangering 
the morals of her maids of honour by so indecor- 
ous a tale." As a punishment, she ordered him to 
withdraw to his country estate, and not to appear 
before her again until he had made a complete 
version of the entire poem. 

Harington, taking Her Majesty at her word, at 
once set to work, and, in a short time, finished the 
whole poem and dedicated it to the Queen herself. 
By this characteristic display of audacity, he 
speedily regained the favour of his Royal god- 
mother, whom he seems to have dearly loved and 
highly esteemed, in spite of the fact that he carried 
on a correspondence with James of Scotland be- 
fore the death of Elizabeth. This apparent con- 
tradiction might be explained as proceeding from 
the hard necessity of providing for his future 
maintenance and that of his numerous family, 
rather than from any lack of affection for his 
benefactress, of whom he wrote in words of glowing 
praise some years after her death. 

Later on, another work of his, " The Metamor- 
phosis of Ajax," which was a biting satire on his 
contemporaries, and particularly on the Earl of 
Leicester, called forth the serious displeasure of 
the Queen. The author escaped a Star Chamber 
inquisition more through his Sovereign's regard 
for him than because he deserved it. Queen Eliza- 
beth banished him from the Court for a time and, 
at first, seemed irrevocably offended with him, but 
was finally heard to say that " she liked the mar- 



110 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

row of the book, and would take the author into 
favour, but for fear he would write epigrams again 
on her and all her Court," and added that, " that 
merry poet, her godson, must not come to Green- 
wich till he hath grown sober, and leaveth the 
ladies, sports and frolics." 

But, as the favour of the Queen was founded not 
only on his wit and gaiety, but on the excellence 
of his character as well, he soon again enjoyed the 
light of the Royal Presence. The repeated par- 
dons of his indulgent godmother induced the 
sprightly Harington to increase the number and 
sharpness of his writings, and he gained for him- 
self both admiration and fear. 

He gives us a striking example of Her " High- 
ness' great wit and marvellous understanding." 
He relates how Queen Elizabeth wrote one letter 
while she dictated another, and, at the same time 
listened to a tale that was told her, and made apt 
answers to it. The letter which she dictated runs 
as follows: 

" A question was once asked me thus, ' Must 
aught be denied a friend's request? Answer me 
yea or nay.' It was answered, nothing. And 
first it is best to scan what a friend is; which I 
think nothing less than friendship is, which I deem 
nothing but one uniform consent of two minds 
such as virtue links, and nought but death can 
part. Therefore I conclude the house which 
shrinketh from its foundation shall down for 
me. For friend leaves he to be, that doth demand 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 111 

more than the givers grant, which reason's leave 
may yield. And, if then my friend no more, God 
send my foe may mend. And, if needily thou 
must will, yet, at the least, no power be thine 
to achieve thine desire ; for when minds differ and 
opinions swarve, there is scant a friend in that 
company. But if my hap be fallen in so happy 
a soil, as one such be found who wills that be- 
seems, and I be pleased with that he so allows, 
I bid myself farewell, and then I am but his." 

The letter she wrote was more than twice as 
long as this, but the tale is not included among 
Harington's papers, and so its length and tenor 
cannot be determined. 

In 1575, Queen Elizabeth wrote a lengthy 
speech to be delivered at the opening of Parlia- 
ment on March 15. In this, she spoke of the diffi- 
culties of her high position and expressed her 
resolution to remain unmarried, wishing that she 
might " cancel every persuasion to the contrary 
out of remembrance." Her Majesty sent a copy 
of this to Harington, who records the receipt of 
it thus : " These good words were given unto me 
by my most honoured Lady and Princess, and did 
bring with them these good advices: 

" ' Boy Jack, — I have made a clerk write fair 
my poor words for thine use, as it cannot be such 
striplings' have entrance into Parliament as yet. 
Ponder them in thy hours of leisure, and play with 
them, till they enter thy understanding; so shalt 
thou hereafter, perchance, find some good fruits 



112 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

thereof when thy godmother is out of remem- 
brance; and I do this because thy father was 
ready to serve and love us in trouble and thrall.' " 

It was evidently the Queen's earnest desire to 
turn her godson's thoughts from his brilliant, but 
biting epigrams to the more serious pursuit of 
learning, for, upon a later occasion, she sent him 
an excellent translation which she herself had made 
of one of Tully's letters, with an injunction to 
muse on this too. 

In 1594, Queen Elizabeth, upon the occasion 
of a visit to Harington, highly praised his wife's 
skill in cooking, and, as she rose to leave, bade her 
godson give her his arm to lean upon. He wrote 
of this in his " Brief Notes and Remembrances." 
" Oh, what sweet burden to my next song ! Pe- 
trach shall eke out good matter for this business." 

Upon another visit to Harington, Her Majesty, 
in merry mood, asked his wife how she kept her 
husband's good will, and his love for herself and 
her children. Mistress Harington answered de- 
murely that " she had confidence in her husband's 
intelligence and courage, founded on her intention 
not to offend or oppose, but to love and obey." 

" Go to, go to. Mistress," said the Queen, " you 
are wisely bent, I find; after such sort do I keep 
the good- will of all my husbands, my good people ; 
for, if they did not rest assured of some special 
love toward them, they would not readily yield me 
such good obedience." 

Harington, on account of his favour with the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 113 

Queen, was often entreated by many fair ladies 
to carry various petitions of theirs to their Royal 
Mistress. Upon one such occasion he writes that 
he will carry the suits at once " for the Queen loveth 
to see me in my last frieze jerkin, and saith 'tis 
well enough cut." 

Some little time after this, Harington writes that 
he has decided to plead on his own account with 
the Queen " and that stoutly ; she loveth plain deal- 
ings and I will not lie unto her." He resolves to 
go to her at an early hour, before she is busy with 
State affairs, kneel before her and say, ' God save 
Your Majesty, I crave your ear at what hour 
may suit for your servant to meet your blessed 
countenance.' Thus will I gain her favour to 
follow to the auditory." 

It seems not unlikely that this skilful courtier 
received his desired boon from the hands of his in- 
dulgent Royal godmother, for he hastens to wheedle 
another favour from her by his usual combination 
of flattery and audacity. For this purpose he 
prepares these lines, which he drops behind her 
cushion, as he leaves her presence : 

"To the Queen's Majesty: 
Forever dear, forever dreaded Prince, 
You read a verse of mine a little since, 
And so pronounced each word and every letter 
Your gracious reading grac'd my verse the better, 
Sith then Your Highness' doth, by gift exceeding. 
Make what you read the better for your reading. 
Let my poor muse your pains thus far importune, 



114 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Like as you read my verse, so — read my fortune. 
From Your Highness' saucy Godson." 

In 1597, a certain Mr. Fenton, recognizing 
Harington's success in obtaining suits from the 
Queen, sent a petition to him to save from Her 
Majesty's displeasure one of her maids of honour, 
the Lady Mary Howard. Mr. Fenton begins his 
lengthy epistle : " It seemeth marvellous that our 
gracious Queen hath so much annoyance from her 
most bounden servants. Her own love hath so 
wrought on us all that the heart must be evil in- 
deed that doth pay her its small duty so grudg- 
ingly as some have done of late." 

It seems that the Lady Mary had refused to 
carry Queen Elizabeth's mantle at the time she 
was accustomed to walk in the garden, and, upon 
only a slight rebuke, made such a saucy answer, 
that the Queen became very angry. Again, this 
pert maid of honour was not ready to carry the 
" cup of grace " during dinner, nor did she attend 
Her Majesty when she went to prayers. Queen 
Elizabeth was so incensed at these repeated acts 
of disobedience that she swore she would dismiss 
her from the Court. In addition, Lady Mary 
strove in every way to gain the favour of the 
young Earl of Essex. This was especially dis- 
pleasing to the Virgin Queen, as she was constantly 
exhorting her ladies to follow her example and 
remain unmarried." 

This Master Fenton had tried in person to 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 115 

soothe Her Majesty's anger against the unruly 
damsel, but all in vain, for Queen Elizabeth an- 
swered, passionately : " I have made her my 
servant, and she will now make herself my mistress ; 
but, in good faith, she shall not, William, and so 
tell her." 

Fenton suggests in his letter to Harington that 
Lord Burleigh be asked to intercede for Lady 
Mary and to tell the girl that she should be obedi- 
ent to the Queen in all things ; that she should, 
above all, cease her attentions to Essex and 
try in every way to make amends for her sauci- 
ness and insubordination. Fenton also discreetly 
proposes that Mary should not dress too gaily, 
" for this seemeth as done more to win the Earl 
than her Mistress' good- will." 

He goes on to say that, considering the great 
favours Queen Elizabeth has always shown the 
Howard family, she has just cause to be displeased 
at Lady Mary's insolence and ingratitude, " for 
the Queen doth not now bear with such composed 
spirit as she was wont ; but, since the Irish affairs, 
seemeth more froward than commonly she used to 
bear herself towards her women, but often chides 
them for small neglects; in such wise as to make 
these fair maids often cry and bewail in piteous 
sort, as I am told by my sister, Elizabeth." 

Unfortunately, we are not informed whether 
Lady Mary followed Master Fenton's wise advice, 
and was received again into Royal favour. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH AT OXFORD 

On Saturday, August 31, 1566, Her Majesty, 
in an open litter drawn by gaily caparisoned 
mules, and followed by a numerous retinue of Lords 
and Ladies, rode from Woodstock to Oxford. At 
Wolvercotte, the Royal party was met by the 
Earl of Leicester, who was Chancellor of Oxford 
University, together with four Doctors of Philoso- 
phy, eight Masters of Arts, and three beadles, who 
knelt and handed their staffs to Leicester. He, 
likewise kneeling, passed them to the Queen, who 
handed them back with a few appropriate words. 

After this ceremony. Master Marbecke of the 
University stepped forward and delivered an ad- 
dress of welcome which lasted a quarter of an 
hour. Queen Elizabeth gave thanks for this 
speech in her accustomed gracious manner, and 
extended her slim, white hand to the delegates of 
the University, who, on bended knees, kissed it 
reverently. 

From Wolvercotte, the Queen, preceded by the 

beadles mounted on horseback, and carrying their 

staffs, rode to within a mile of Oxford. Here, 

the Mayor and his Aldermen, in their scarlet gowns, 

116 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 117 

together with the chief citizens of the town, re- 
ceived Her Majesty. The Mayor, going through 
the usual custom, tendered his mace to the Sov- 
ereign, who at once handed it back. Then the 
Mayor made a lengthy welcoming oration in the 
name of the city and presented the Queen with a 
"cup of silver double gilt, in value 101. in old 
gold, as it was thought." 

After giving thanks for this presentation, the 
Royal visitor entered the City of Oxford at North- 
gate. From here to the door of Christ Church 
Hall all the members of the University were stand- 
ing, in the order of their degree. 

Two scholars of the first degree stepped for- 
ward and gave Her Majesty an oration and certain 
verses in writing, then two Bachelors of Art, 
two Masters of Art, and lastly two Doctors of 
Philosophy did likewise. These students, all in 
their caps and gowns adorned with the insignia 
of their academic honours, presented an imposing 
appearance as they stood, drawn up in splendid 
array, before the keen eyes of their Sovereign. 

After a spech by Robert Deale of New College, 
Queen Elizabeth rode on, and the scholars, kneel- 
ing, cried " Vivat Regina — long live the Queen ! " 
She, with a joyful and gratified smile, said often, 
" Gratias ago — I thank you." 

When she came to the middle of the city, the 
public Reader of the Greek lecture, made her a 
long speech of welcome in Greek. Her Majesty 
listened to this attentively, and then gave him 



118 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

courteous thanks in the same classic language. 
The restlessness of the mules that bore the Royal 
litter prevented those who did not stand near the 
Queen from hearing the whole of her reply. 

Still riding on through the rows of scholars, 
Her Majesty came to the hall door of Christ 
Church, where the Orator of the University de- 
livered a speech. After thanking him, the Queen 
stepped from the litter, and walking under a can- 
opy of crimson velvet held over her by four Senior 
Doctors, entered the church and listened to the 
singing of the Te Deum by the choir, accompanied 
by cornets. When the service was ended. Her 
Majesty was conducted to her lodgings. Upon 
the college gate, hall door, and walls of the church 
were posted verses in Latin and Greek, written in 
honour and praise of the Maiden Queen. 

(On Sunday, Elizabeth, wearied by the journey 
and the perpetual speech-making, remained in her 
apartments the entire day. In the evening, a 
Latin play was performed in the hall of Christ 
Church. Many Noblemen were present, but the 
illustrious visitor felt too fatigued to attend. 

On Monday, the Nobility and the Spanish Am- 
bassador, who had come in the Queen's retinue, 
listened to public lectures and disputations. In 
the evening, Her Majesty was sufficiently recovered 
from her indisposition to hear the first part of the 
English play, " Palaemon and Arcite." This 
was written by Master Edwards of Queen's chapel 
and played in the hall of Christ church. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 119 

During the course of the play, three people, a 
scholar of St. Mary's Hall, a cook, and a brewer 
of the city were killed, and many others severely 
injured by the crowding of the spectators, who 
pushed down a piece of the side wall of a stair 
upon them. 

Queen Elizabeth expressed great sympathy and 
sent her own surgeons to assist the unfortunate 
men, three of whom were past remedy. With the 
exception of this deplorable accident, the play was 
highly successful and was received with great 
favour by Her Majesty. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the disputations which 
had been deferred on account of the Queen's indis- 
position, were held in St. Mary's. Her Majesty 
and the courtiers listened with remarkable patience 
to endless discussions on natural and moral philos- 
ophy. Among other things, the question was de- 
bated whether Princes should be elected or hered- 
itary. 

The decision was naturally made in favour of the 
hereditary theory, but one of its opponents boldly 
declared his readiness to die for his opinions. 
The Queen, with an ironical smile, applauded him, 
but the others prudently refrained from expressing 
their sentiments. 

\ It had been proposed that night to present the 
second part of " Palaemon and Arcite," but, as Her 
Majesty was weary, the play was postponed until 
the next evening. 

On Wednesday after dinner, the Queen listened 



120 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

to disputations on Civil Law, which were held in 
St. Mary's Church, and lasted for four hours. 
Elizabeth's excellent and noteworthy reform of 
the currency was discussed and commended. The 
Nobles listened to this debate with especial interest. 
In the evening, the second half of " Palaemon and 
Arcite " was played in the hall of Christ Church. 
The refusal of the goddess to grant the heroine's 
prayer to be allowed to lead a virgin life, was 
vigourously applauded by the spectators, while the 
Queen's applause was somewhat stinted, for she 
probably felt that this was a covert hint to her to 
marry. However, at the close of the performance, 
she gave Master Edwards many thanks for the 
entertainment he had prepared. 

On the next day, debates on Physics and Divin- 
ity were held in St. Mary's, from two until seven 
o'clock. The Queen was very attentive, and stayed 
until the end. The question was discussed whether 
it was lawful to take up arms against a bad 
Prince. The decision was decidedly in the nega- 
tive. Elizabeth herself ended the proceedings, 
and, at the earnest request of the Spanish Am- 
bassador and her Nobles, made a pleasing and elo- 
quent speech in Latin before the whole University, 
who loudly and enthusiastically applauded her. 

In the evening, the Latin tragedy, " Progne," 
was played, but was received with much less favour 
than " Palaemon and Arcite " had excited. 

On Friday morning, a sermon in Latin was 
preached in Christ Church before the Nobles and 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 121 

the scholars, but the Queen, again feeling wearied, 
remained in her lodgings until dinner. While at 
table, the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors pre- 
sented Her Majesty with six pairs of fine gloves; 
one or two pairs were also given to the Nobles and 
officers of the Royal household. These gifts were 
very graciously received. 

After dinner. Queen Elizabeth took her depar- 
ture from the University. A farewell address was 
made to her in Christ Church, after which she rode 
on to St. Mary's where glowing eulogies of her 
princely self were posted conspicuously on the 
doors, walls and gates of this building, as well as 
upon all the dormitories she passed by. The 
scholars stood in order of their rank from St. 
Mary's to the east gate. Four Doctors of the 
University, in scarlet gowns and hoods, rode be- 
fore Her Majesty; after them came four Masters 
of Arts, in black gowns and hoods, next the Mayor 
and fourteen Aldermen in their bright coloured 
vestments. They attended their Royal guest as 
far as Magdalen Bridge, where Masters Marbecke 
and Deale delivered two more farewell speeches. 
The Queen then took affable leave of her hosts and 
gave them her hand to kiss. 

As she rode away, she exclaimed, " Farewell, the 
worthy University of Oxford. Farewell, my good 
subjects here; farewell, my dear scholars; and 
pray God prosper your studies. Farewell, fare- 
well." 

She also remarked that she was sorry she had 



122 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

not been able to' visit the separate colleges, and 
then added, with a mirthful gleam in her eyes, 
that she exceedingly regretted not having heard 
any more sermons. 

She left behind her golden memories of her gra- 
cious bearing. Charles Plummer, Fellow of 
Christ College, Oxford, in 1887, says that the 
praise bestowed upon the Virgin Queen " though 
fulsome, was richly earned by her, for the condi- 
tion of England as compared with other countries 
was truly fortunate." She herself said on her 
second visit to Oxford that " next to the salvation 
of her soul, her greatest aim had ever been to pre- 
serve England from foreign attack and internal 
strife." And, says Plummer, " she succeeded, un- 
der God, beyond what any one would have dared 
to hope." 



XI 

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART 

The chief promoter of discord in the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth was the brilhant and beautiful 
Mary, Queen of Scots, the granddaughter of 
Margaret, elder sister of Henry VIII, who mar- 
ried the King of Scotland. Mary was therefore 
cousin of the English Queen and the next heir to 
the Throne. Mary had been brought up in France 
and had married the heir to the French Throne, 
becoming Queen Consort of France just after the 
accession of Elizabeth. She then styled herself 
" Queen of England, Scotland and France," but 
did not at that time press her claims to the English 
Throne. Mary was eight years younger than 
Queen Elizabeth, well-educated, of attractive per- 
sonality, and had imbibed from the intriguing 
French Court a love of scheming, which she em- 
ployed for purely personal aims and ambitions. 

At the death of her husband, Francis II, Mary, 
finding her life in France unpleasant on account 
of the jealousy of Catherine de' Medici, the Queen 
Mother, and urged by her subjects to come home, 
decided to return to Scotland. She asked Eliza- 
beth's permission to pass through England, but 
123 



124 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

was refused because she would not sign a treaty 
giving up her claim to the English Throne, which 
she believed she had a better right to than Eliza- 
beth herself, since the divorce of Henry VIH 
from Katherine of Aragon and his subsequent mar- 
riage with Anne Boleyn, had not been sanctioned 
by the Pope. ^ 

Mary found her position in Scotland very diffir 
cult. She was a Roman Catholic Queen in the 
midst of a nation, in the main, radically Protestant. 
Accustomed as she was to the gaiety, luxury and 
courtesy of the French Court, her pleasure loving 
nature was fairly choked by the austerity of 
Scotch Protestantism and the rough, quarrelsome 
manners of her courtiers. 

The inevitable contest with Queen Elizabeth 
soon began. Her Majesty of England had al- 
ready, before Mary's return, aided the Scotch 
Protestants in a rebellion against their Regent. 
Mary now steadily importuned Elizabeth to recog- 
nize her as heiress-presumptive to the English 
Throne. This the Queen of England as steadily 
refused to do, for she saw clearly that it would give 
encouragement to the Catholic party to form a coa- 
lition against her, and probably cause some of the 
more fanatic of its members to seek her life. As she 
expressed it, " She was not so foolish as to hang 
a winding sheet before her eyes or make a funeral 
feast whilst she was alive." She promised, however, 
that she would not do anything herself or allow 
Parliament to do anything prejudicial to Mary's 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 125 

claim as her heir. She held to this promise long 
after Mary had shown herself an active and dan- 
gerous enemy. Ostensibly, the Scottish Queen was* 
clamouring only for the right of succession, but 
she was in reality plotting to hurl her sister 
Sovereign from her Throne. In 1562, her mar- 
riage to her cousin. Lord Darnley, an English sub- 
ject and a Catholic, led to a revolt of the Prot- 
estant Nobles, under the Earl of Murray, the 
Queen's illegitimate brother. This rebellion was 
promptly crushed by Mary, who drove the offend- 
ers into England as refugees. The stabbing of 
David Rizzio, Mary's Italian secretary, by the 
worthless Darnley and a company of Nobles 
aroused the Scottish Queen's hot resentment. 
After the birth of a son, who was named James, a 
pretended reconciliation took place between Mary 
and her husband, who had fallen ill. But Mary 
had fallen passionately in love with the fierce Earl 
of Bothwell. She brought Darnley to a Royal 
dwelling, Kirk-a-field, and visited him there daily 
for a week or more. One night, after she had left 
him to return to her Palace of Holyrood, Kirk-a- 
field was blown up with gun-powder, and the bodies 
of Darnley and his page were found near by. 
They appeared to have been murdered in an at- 
tempt to escape from the building. There were 
strong suspicions that Mary knew beforehand of 
her husband's murder ; at any rate her lover Both- 
well certainly planned the deed, if not actually 
perpetrated it. All Scotland was roused to indig- 



126 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

nation against him. Soon after this, the Queen 
went to Stirling, where she was seized and carried 
off by Bothwell, with her own consent, it is gen- 
erally believed. While he held her captive, she 
married him. 

The parents of the murdered Darnley appealed 
to Queen Elizabeth for vengeance. She at once 
wrote the following energetic letter to the Queen of 
Scots : " For the love of God, Madam, use such 
sincerity and prudence in this case, which touches 
you so nearly, that all the world may have reason 
to judge you innocent of so enormous a crime — 
a thing which unless you do, you will be worthily 
blotted out from the rank of Princesses, and ren- 
dered, not undeservedly, the opprobrium of the 
vulgar; rather than which fate should befall you, 
I should wish you an honourable sepulchre, instead 
of a stained life." 

By her actions, Mary roused the anger of all 
classes of her subjects. The rebellion ended in a 
fierce battle, Bothwell was driven into flight, and 
the Queen seized and imprisoned in the Castle of 
Loch Leven. 

Queen Elizabeth then sent a letter to Mary, 
blaming her marriage with the notorious Bothwell, 
but offering to mediate for her, as far as possible, 
if she would punish the murderer, who had divorced 
his lawful wife to marry her. But Mary preferred 
to relinquish the Throne rather than Bothwell, al- 
though she was aware that her passionate love 
for him was not returned. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 1^7 

When Queen Elizabeth heard that the Scotch 
were proposing to try to execute Mary her anger 
waxed hot, for she hated rebels, although policy 
sometimes forced her to favour them. She im- 
periously told the Scotch Lords that if they de- 
posed or punished their Sovereign, she would take 
revenge upon them. She bade them, if they failed 
in trying to persuade her to do what was right, 
" remit themselves to Almighty God, in whose 
hands only Princes' hearts remain." This haughty 
language angered the men in Scotland who fa- 
voured English interests. They had expected 
Elizabeth to approve of their action and send them 
the money which, as usual, they were clamouring 
for. Instead, she treated them as rebels and se- 
cretly encouraged the Hamiltons to rescue Mary 
by force. 

But Queen Elizabeth was quick to see what ad- 
vantage could be gotten out of this situation. 
She dispatched Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to 
Scotland to try to get the young Prince James 
confided to her keeping. If she could once get 
him in England, she would have had a son and heir 
w^ith which to satisfy the importunities of Parlia- 
ment, and, at the same time, would have avoided 
marriage which was so distasteful to her. Then, 
too, she would have a strong hold upon Mary, in 
the event of her being released, and, if she should 
be deposed or executed, she might rule Scotland 
as Regent. But the Scotch Lords refused to send 
the infant Prince to England, unless Elizabeth 



1£8 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

would formally recognize his title to the English 
succession. This condition she could not grant, 
and so Throckmorton's attempt was unsuccessful. 
The Scotch also refused Queen Elizabeth's demand 
that Mary should be restored unconditionally and 
now forced her, under pain of instant death, to 
abdicate in favour of her son, and to appoint Mur- 
ray Regent. When Queen Elizabeth was informed 
of this, she refused to acknowledge Murray's Re- 
gency and wrote to Throckmorton : * " Whatever 
suspicion of guilt there may be against Queen 
Mary, her subjects have no right to depose her. 
Such an action is contrary to Scripture and un- 
reasonable, that the head should be subject to the 
foot. All the examples produced from history 
are taken from rebels ; we forbid you to be present 
at the Coronation of the young Prince." 

After Murray had publicly assumed the Regency, 
Mary being in rigourous confinement, Elizabeth 
wrote to Throckmorton,-}- " The Hamiltons are 
right that they will not acknowledge the new gov- 
ernment till Mary has voluntarily abdicated ; I will 
do what I can for her liberty." 

France now courted the alliance of Murray and 
offered to send an army to support him. But he 
declined French aid, preferring to wait until Queen 
Elizabeth's anger waned and she became once more 
the cool statesman of old. 

In 1568, Mary escaped from Loch Leven, and, 

* Von Raumer's State Papers. 
t Von Raumer. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 129 

after the defeat of Langside, fled to England. 
She had long viewed the Realm of the English 
Queen with eager longing, for she firmly believed 
if she appeared there, a party would rally around 
her and Queen Elizabeth would be hurled from her 
Throne. When she was in prosperity she had re- 
peatedly asked permission to visit England, and 
Queen Elizabeth's' steady refusal had strengthened 
her illusion. Mary, now anticipating another 
refusal from Queen Elizabeth at this crisis, did 
not wait for the permission she had requested by 
letter, but immediately crossed the Solway with 
about twenty attendants, and landed in Cumber- 
land. Necessity did not force her to this haste, 
for Regent Murray had returned to Edinburgh, 
and Lord Herris had guaranteed her safety for 
forty days at Dundrennan. It was her desire to 
undermine the Throne of the only Sovereign who 
had tried to help her that impelled her hasty and 
unauthorized crossing of the Solway. She was 
conducted to Carlisle by its Deputy-Governor, and 
from there wrote at once to the Queen, protesting 
her innocence of the crimes she was charged with, 
requesting a personal interview, and asking for 
money and clothes. 

Queen Elizabeth now found herself saddled with 
a responsibility she had not looked for, and which 
she certainly did not desire. She had sympathized 
with Mary in Scotland, not because she believed 
her guiltless, but in order to maintain the principle 
of royal authority, founded on hereditary succes- 



130 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

sion by primogeniture. Consistently with this 
purpose, she still regarded the Scottish Queen as 
her presumptive heiress, in spite of what had hap- 
pened, but she was far from wishing to introduce 
into her Kingdom such a firebrand as Mary was. 
So she decided that Mary must be restored to her 
Throne, but that the real governing should be in 
Murray's hands to prevent further mischief. Bur- 
leigh also desired to send Mary back to Scotland, 
but as Murray's prisoner, not as Queen. 

Elizabeth sent several English Lords and Ladies 
to attend the Scottish refugee at Carlisle; she 
also despatched the necessary money to defray her 
expenses, taking the precaution to' command, how- 
ever, that neither Mary nor any of her attendants 
should be allowed to escape until her further pleas- 
ure. Mary began to complain bitterly of the 
coolness of Elizabeth's letters and at her long de- 
lays in granting her a personal interview; at the 
same time she was angling for an alliance with 
France, although the English Queen had offered to 
assist her only on condition that she would not 
seek French aid. 

Queen Elizabeth decided that before she could 
come to any reasonable decision in regard to her 
troublesome charge, it would be necessary to con- 
sult with the Scotch Regent. She accordingly 
wrote him, informing him of Mary's arrival and 
her complaints of him and his associates. Murray 
was willing and ready to accept Queen Elizabeth as 
mediator, but Mary was very reluctant to face 



QUEEN ELIZABETH lai 

an investigation. She finally agreed to this, as 
Elizabeth refused to admit her to her presence 
until her character was cleared. 
xAt the inquiry, a certain silver casket, captured 
from Bothwell, was placed in the hands of the 
English Council by the leaders of the Scotch rebels. 
The casket contained letters and other documents, 
which seemed without doubt to be in Mary's hand- 
writing and to have been sent by her to Bothwell, 
before her husband's murder. They showed com- 
plete knowledge of all the plans for the murder, 
together with a treacherous and reckless intention 
of sacrificing her own and her country's interests 
to the infamous Bothwell. Mary now found her- 
self the accused instead of the accuser, and 
abruptly broke off^ the negotiations, thereby prov- 
ing her guilt all the more clearly. As the English 
Council believed Mary's guilt proved beyond the 
shadow of a doubt, it was plainly impossible for 
Queen Elizabeth to restore her, even if she still 
desired to. The negotiations were accordingly 
dropped without reaching a decision. Mary re- 
mained in England and Murray was sent home 
with a small sum of money. 

Soon after this. Pope Pius V announced that 
Queen Elizabeth was a heretic and had forfeited 
the Throne. 

Queen Elizabeth's refusal to set Mary at liberty 
was warmly seconded by Burleigh, who ventured 
to tell her that " she would be abandoned by her 
best servants, if, by the liberation of Queen Mary, 



132 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

she wilfully exposed her person and her Kingdom to 
such evident and too certain danger." 

Mary was now endeavouring to have her marriage 
with Bothwell dissolved in order that she might 
marry the Duke of Norfolk, the head of the Eng- 
lish Peerage. She was eagerly reaching toward 
the English Crown. Another plot was headed by 
the Catholic Nobles of the north to depose Eliza- 
beth, place Mary on the Throne, and marry her 
to Don John of Austria. The Scottish Queen was 
the very heart of ever thickening intrigues, cul- 
minating in the rebellion of the Earls of West- 
moreland and Northumberland, which was promptly 
crushed by Queen Elizabeth. Northumberland was 
executed, Westmoreland escaped to the Nether- 
lands, where he died, and Norfolk w!as safely 
lodged in the Tower. 

In 1570 Murray was assassinated. This was a 
great grief to Queen Elizabeth. On hearing of 
his death, she shut herself up in her chamber, and, 
with a burst of tears, declared she had lost " the 
best friend she had in the world." The new Re- 
gent was Lennox and she found it necessary to give 
a little aid to the young King's party, which was 
weakened by the death of Murray. 

Mary now proposed that Elizabeth liberate her 
unconditionally. For this purpose she wrote her 
several flattering letters. In one she says, " I 
wish you knew what sincerity of love and aff^ection 
are in my heart for you." But, at that very time, 
she also wrote for other eyes to see, " the Pope is 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 133 

desired to forgive her for writing loving and sooth- 
ing letters to Elizabeth; she desires nothing more 
than the re-establishment of the Catholic religion 
in England." In addition, she kept up a corre- 
spondence with the party of the rebels, Westmore- 
land and Northumberland, and caused £1,500 to 
be raised for their relief, writing simultaneously to 
Queen Elizabeth,* " I rejoice that you have taken 
so much interest in the state of my health. By 
the pleasure of God, and the help of your learned 
physicians, I am perfectly reconvalescent ; never- 
theless, the principal care and continuance of my 
health does consist that I might stand in your good 
favour." 

As a result of the discovery of Mary's connec- 
tion with the rebels, her renewed plans to marry 
Norfolk, and her attempt to escape by foreign 
or domestic aid, she was put under much stricter 
surveillance at Sheffield. The Earl of Shrewsbury, 
who had charge of her, was to be informed when- 
ever she walked or rode out; no more than four 
of her attendants were to accompany her armed, 
and none could leave the town without permission. 

Queen Elizabeth allowed the friends of Mary, 
however, to send her whatever she needed for her 
clothing, health or other personal uses, besides 
sums of money. She permitted her to keep male 
and female attendants, provided they were ap- 
proved of by the English Council or the Earl of 
Shrewsbury. She was always to have liberty to 
* Von Raumer. 



134 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

walk out when she pleased, either in company with 
the Earl or others that he deemed suitable. She 
continued to have this liberty until the conduct of 
herself and her agents, as often happened, caused 
it to be restricted. She was to have as many at- 
tendants as she pleased, on the condition that 
Shrewsbury did not have cause to suspect other 
such intrigues as had been attempted before by 
several of her attendants. 

Mary's continued intriguing with the Duke of 
Norfolk brought on the Ridolphi plot. Ridolphi 
was an Italian banker in London, and a secret 
agent of the Pope. For two years he had kept 
up a treasonable correspondence with Norfolk and 
his friends. The object of the conspirators was to 
induce Philip of Spain to lead an army into Eng- 
land ; by the aid of this, Mary would be liberated 
and marry the Duke of Norfolk, Elizabeth was to 
be deposed and Mary crowned, and Catholicism 
would be restored. But Philip knew the strength 
of the English Queen and that his great rival, 
France, was humbly suing for her alliance on al- 
most any terms that were pleasing to her, and so 
he refused to send a single soldier until he was 
assured that Elizabeth had been first assassinated 
or imprisoned. Almost from the beginning Bur- 
leigh had been on the scent of this plot. In 1571, 
he secured definite evidence incriminating Norfolk, 
Southampton, the Spanish Ambassador, the Bishop 
of Ross, the Queen of Scots, and two other Peers. 
Norfolk was again sent to the Tower, and the other 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 135 

Nobles arrested. The Spanish Ambassador was 
ordered to leave England. The Bishop made full 
confession, Mary's liberty was restricted, she was 
confined to a single room and excluded, for a time, 
from all communication with the outside world. 
The universal opinion at home and abroad was that 
she would be speedily tried and executed. Her 
treasonable acts warranted but little else. The 
Scotch became more embittered than ever against 
her, and her partisans were told that she could 
never be restored. The casket letters, which had 
been kept from publication by the desire of Queen 
Elizabeth, were now given over to public scrutiny. 

Queen Elizabeth wrote to Catherine de' Medici, 
"In Lord Seaton's papers, I have found such mat- 
ter to prove the earnest contrivance and prosecu- 
tion of her (Mary's) procedure against us." The 
Queen Mother thereupon decided that as Mary 
was so dangerous a person, she and her son would 
no longer importune Elizabeth for her liberty. 

Norfolk alone, of all the conspirators, was 
brought to trial for his repeated offences. Under 
any other Sovereign but Queen Elizabeth, who was 
noted, even among her enemies, for her clemency, 
all the other Peers would undoubtedly have per- 
ished. Norfolk was found guilty and sentenced 
to execution. He had acted with base hypocrisy 
and had continued his nefarious plotting, after he 
had been generously excused for his first offence 
in the northern rebellion. 

The Queen delayed long in signing the death 



136 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

warrant. She had reigned fourteen years without 
executing a single Noble (Northumberland at that 
time was under arrest in Scotland). The scaffold 
on Tower Hill was falling to pieces from disuse, 
and it would be necesary to erect a new one. Eliz- 
abeth was loth to build the new one. Finally, she 
yielded to the repeated demands of the House of 
Commons, and allowed justice to take its course. 
Upon the scaffold, Norfolk said, " I acknowledge 
that my Peers have justly condemned me to death, 
and I do not excuse myself." 

Mary now began to complain of the rigour of 
her imprisonment, declared that her health was 
suffering from it, and that she was innocent of 
treason. Queen Elizabeth replied that " she had 
received so many wrongs of Mary, her life. Crown 
and Kingdom were in such danger by her attempts, 
that the present Parliament had frequently de- 
sired her to fall upon such ways as might secure 
herself from such dangerous attempts for the 
future." 

At this Parliament, which Queen Elizabeth called 
in May, 1572, it was suggested that Mary be pre- 
vented from succession to the Crown, and that if 
she planned treason again she should " suffer pains 
of death without further trouble of Parliament." 
It was to be considered treason if she consented 
to any attempt to liberate her. But Queen Eliza- 
beth was not ready to go to extremities yet. She 
was still determined to preserve Mary, as she had 
been from the first, in spite of the loudly expressed 






QUEEN ELIZABETH 137 

disapproval of Parliament and the Council. She 
told them that she would not allow the Queen of 
Scots to be " either enabled or disabled to or from 
any manner of title to the Crown " nor would she 
permit " any other title to the same whatsoever 
touched at all." 

There were now many violent publications issued 
against Mary ; Clergy, Parliament, and people were 
loudly demanding her execution. Queen Elizabeth 
and Burleigh were the mildest and most moderate 
of all. Her Majesty had twice refused her con- 
sent to the execution, which was desired and ap- 
proved of by public opinion, and still persisted in 
preserving the life of her most dangerous foe. 
Even Burleigh's apprehensions were so aroused 
that he wrote to Leicester, " If Her Majesty will 
continue her delays in providing for her own surety 
by just means given to her by God, she and we 
all shall vainly call upon God when the calamity 
shall fall upon us." But Elizabeth continued to 
treat lightly the fears of her ministers. 

The next ten years were comparativey free from 
political intrigues, although, in 1575, Walsingham 
wrote to the Earl of Sussex concerning a con- 
spiracy against the Queen and complained that 
" she makes so light of the matter, which I take 
to be a kind of watch-word, that our travail therein 
will be of no purpose." 

In the meantime, Mary continued her assertions 
of innocence and demands for liberation. Her 



138 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

health had begun to suffer from her long impris- 
onment, and she had difficulty in walking. 

In 1583, the plots of the Jesuits were thicken- 
ing around Queen Elizabeth and Mary was intrigu- 
ing for joint sovereignty in Scotland with her 
son, the young King, who had been declared of age 
at thirteen. French aid was again desired, and it 
was" proposed to lead a combined Scotch and 
French army into England, where it would be 
joined by the English Catholics'. Elizabeth would 
be deposed and Mary placed on the Throne. But 
James realized it was to his advantage to keep 
in the good graces of the English Queen and he 
intended to do so, whatever were his mother's 
plans. 

Queen Elizabeth viewed the formidable plot with 
intrepid coolness, although her entire Council ad- 
vocated and urged her to the immediate use of 
force. She had found out that James regarded his 
mother as his rival for the Thrones of England 
and Scotland, and that he really desired that she 
continue in captivity. She had also discovered 
that those very Scotch Nobles, on whom Mary de- 
pended, were prepared to resist her restoration for 
their own interests. Therefore, when she saw both 
the English and French party in Scotland humbly 
suing for her favour, she felt it would be a safe and 
cheap policy to let them fight it out among them- 
selves. She did grant a moderate pension to 
James, however, to keep him good-natured, but 
not a penny would she give to the leaders of the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 139 

Anglophiles, for she knew their own interests 
would force them to serve her who was the cham- 
pion of their religion. 

While plots against the Queen were agitating 
all England, it had become the custom for large 
numbers of people to throw themselves on their 
knees in the dirt of the roads, whenever she rode 
out, pray fervently for her preservation, and loudly 
invoke blessings on her Royal head and confusion 
to the Catholics. A scene of this sort occurred 
one day when Queen Elizabeth and Mauvissiere, 
the French Ambassador, were riding from Hamp- 
ton Court to London in November, 1583. Her 
Majesty was' discussing the recent discovery of 
several conspiracies among the Jesuits, " When," 
says Mauvissiere, " crowds of people fell on their 
knees by the way, prayed in divers manners, and 
wished her a thousand blessings, and that all her 
wicked enemies may be discovered and punished; 
she stopped frequently, and thanked them for all 
their affection. As I was alone with her ( she rode 
a fine horse) amidst this crowd, she said, ' I see 
that all do not wish me evil.' " 

All negotiations with Mary were repeatedly 
broken off by the discovery of fresh plots against 
Queen Elizabeth, in which the Scottish Queen was 
deeply involved. During the last negotiations, 
while Mary was pretending to be frank and inno- 
cent, her commissioner, Morgan, had hired a man, 
named Parry, to assassinate the Queen. Mary 
admitted that she had given Morgan a pension, 



140 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

but would not acknowledge her participation in 
his guilt. 

In the meantime, hot disputes had been arising 
between the Earl of Shrewsbury, Mary's jailer, 
and his second wife. The Countess of Shrews- 
bury was fiercely jealous of the fair prisoner and 
spread abroad scandalous reports of her, which 
finally reached the ears of Queen Elizabeth, who 
would not allow Mary to be slandered with impun- 
ity, but instantly ordered an investigation of the 
matter. The Countess retracted her charges and 
declared she did not at all believe what she had re- 
ported. 

In a letter * written by Mary, she says : " The 
Countess of Shrewsbury was' obliged to go upon 
her knees in the presence of the Queen of England 
and some principals of the Council, and denied 
to her the shameful tales by herself spread against 
me." 

Mary, however, to' revenge herself on the Count- 
ess, with whom she was once very friendly, and, at 
the same time, to cause annoyance to Elizabeth, 
very injudiciously repeated to Her Majesty of 
England the spiteful things the Countess had said 
against her. 

In 1585, Sir Amyas Paulet was appointed jailer 
to the Scottish Queen. She was now suffering 
with chronic and neuralgic maladies, which she laid 
to the dampness and lack of conveniences' in her 
prison-house, but Paulet says, " There is no other 

* Von Raumer's State Papers. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 141 

house or seat in the neighbourhood to which Mary 
could be moved." In spite of her maladies and the 
vigilance of her jailer, she continued her intrigues 
by means of secret ciphers. 

All this" time, the Jesuits, undismayed by the 
severe punishment inflicted upon them, persevered 
in their plots against the Queen's life and govern- 
ment. The most important of these innumerable 
conspiracies in its results was the one in which the 
two Throckmortons, George and Francis, together 
with Charles Paget, were involved. These three 
men were carrying on a treasonable correspondence 
with that same Morgan, who had hired the 
would-be assassin. Parry. Francis Throckmorton, 
when put upon the rack, made statements which 
involved the Spanish Ambassador, Mendoza, in a 
plot to dethrone Queen Elizabeth: Mendoza in- 
dignantly denied the charges, but was ordered to 
leave England without delay. He still kept up a 
correspondence, nevertheless, with Mary, Queen of 
Scots, and her agents. 



XII 
HER MAJESTY'S SUITORS 

Queen Elizabeth's foreign policy was to keep 
England as long as possible from open war with 
the two great rival powers, Erance and Spain, and 
to prevent a coalition of the two against her. 
What she, in particular desired, was a defensive 
alliance with the former. With this purpose con- 
stantly in mind, she kept up a series of seemingly 
endless marriage negotiations extending over a 
space of nearly thirty years, completely mystify- 
ing her own subjects as well as all Europe in re- 
gard to her real intentions. Her sex gave her an 
advantage over the masculine rulers of Europe, 
and she did not scruple to use this advantage to 
suit her purposes. The European Princes, against 
whom she was pitted, were at a loss to know how to 
consider her, whether as a weak, amourous woman, 
or as a cool-headed and far seeing statesman. 
Elizabeth played her cards with consummate skill, 
and took pains to keep her opponents in doubt as 
to her next move. 

Philip of Spain has already been mentioned as 

the first Royal suitor after her accession. The 

Queen's refusal to tie herself to her disagreeable 
142 



I 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 143 

and arrogant brother-in-law, inspired some of her 
own sub j ects with hopes of succeeding where a for- 
eigner had failed. Chief among these eager as- 
pirants for the hand of the Virgin Queen were: 
the elderly, foppish Earl of Arundel, who had at 
first been foremost in the death cry against Eliza- 
beth when she was Princess ; Lord Robert Dudley ; 
" and a very handsome youth," the Earl of Ox- 
ford ; also " a very handsome, gallant gentleman," 
Sir William Pickering. Arundel, the premier 
Earl of England, was foremost in high rank and 
noble descent, but a widower, twice married and 
well advanced in years. He was Lord Steward of 
the Royal household and so had many opportuni- 
ties of pressing his suit. To gain the great prize he 
sought, he was ruining himself by lavish and 
ostentatious gifts ; he borrowed large sums of 
money and with reckless extravagance scattered 
costly jewels among the ladies of honour. The 
shrewd young Queen fed his hopes sufficiently to 
arouse the jealousy of the courtiers and to obtain 
his vote and influence in the Council, but she must 
have laughed inwardly at the thought of becom- 
ing the third wife of the empty-headed old coxcomb, 
who, at her Coronation ceremony had pompously 
strutted about " with a silver wand a yard long, 
commanding everybody, from the Duke of Norfolk 
downwards," and ever since had been offending all 
the courtiers with his self-sufficient grandeur. 
But, for a time, Pickering seemed to be the favourite 
candidate. He was about thirty-six years of age. 



144 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

" of some nobility of birth, of moderate fortune, 
but comely person." He had creditably performed 
some embassies in France and Germany, and had 
received so many marks of favour from the Queen 
that he was regarded by all the people as her fu- 
ture husband, according to the Italian Ambassador. 
Sir William now had a suite of rooms in the 
Palace, took upon himself the airs of a Prince, and 
preferred to eat alone in solitary state rather 
than to dine with the other men of his rank. His 
insolence angered all the greater Nobles and he 
openly quarreled with the Earls of Bedford and 
Arundel. But he soon vanished from the scene, 
leaving the keener-witted Dudley as the foremost 
of Her Majesty's English suitors. Queen Eliza- 
beth declared nevertheless, that " she would die a 
thousand deaths rather than marry one of her sub- 
jects." 

In the meantime. Emperor Ferdinand of Austria 
offered his son, the Archduke Charles, to the Queen. 
She said she would marry no man she had not seen 
and " she would rather be a nun than marry a 
man she did not know, on the faith of portrait 
painters." She then hinted that she would be 
glad to have Charles come over to England to be 
inspected, even if he came incognito. But when 
there was a likelihood that the Archduke would 
actually come. Queen Elizabeth hastened to declare 
that she had not invited him and was not bound 
to marry him. The fact that he was a Catholic 
seemed one of the difficulties', although it was the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 145 

opinion of Philip's agent, Feria, that she never 
meant to marry and was" simply amusing her- 
self. The Spanish Bishop, Quadra, admitted that 
he could not understand what the English Queen 
did intend, nor what sort of a husband it was, if 
any, that she really desired. She had once 
observed that she wished a husband who would be 
" as obedient as her lap-dog," and again, that 
among other qualities which her husband must 
possess is that '' he should not sit at home all day 
among the cinders, but should in time of peace 
keep himself employed in warlike exercises." 
However, to keep the English Catholics in hand. 
Queen Elizabeth continued to feed the Emperor 
Ferdinand with vague hopes and to flatter and 
befool his dull-witted Ambassador. Meantime, the 
Scotch suggested that she marry the Earl of Arran, 
heir-presumptive to the Throne of Scotland. She 
gave no decided answer, but sent for him, too, to 
come over and be inspected. To Elizabeth's prob- 
able relief, he turned out to be an impossible hus- 
band, for he was subject to' spells of insanity. So 
she declined the offer, but in courteous terms, 
thanking the Scotch Nobles for their good-will in 
offering her " the choicest person they had." 
. The King of Sweden, who was of the same re- 
ligion as the English Queen, offered her his heir, 
Prince Eric. His brother, John, Duke of Fin- 
land, a man of handsome person and pleasing 
manners, was sent to plead his cause. He was met 
and welcomed at Colchester, in the name of the 



146 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Queen, by the Earl of Oxford and Lord Robert 
Dudley and was' conducted by them to London. 
There he was given a princely reception by a 
company of Lords and Ladies and thence proceeded 
to the Bishop of Winchester's Palace, which had 
been assigned as his abode. A week later, he came 
by water to the Court and was received in the 
Presence Chamber by the Queen, with due honours 
and great cordiality. Upon all his journeys to 
the Court, he scattered money freely among the 
populace, saying, " He gave silver, but his brother 
would give gold." 

Queen Elizabeth as usual would give no definite 
answer, but expressed her customary desire to see 
the Royal Eric and judge for herself of his good 
qualities. She sent him a message that " he 
should be welcome, but she could not yet persuade 
herself to change her single life, which was most 
pleasing to her, for a married life." She bade 
him " try her kindness in any other matter, and 
though he failed in this suit, yet he was not to 
think his love ill-bestowed." 

Upon the death of the aged King of Sweden, 
Eric, who succeeded to the Throne, summoned his 
brother home, for he had become jealous of him 
and shrewdly surmised that he was wooing the 
capricious Queen of England on his own account. 
Eric now sent an Ambassador to renew the negotia- 
tions, and to present to Her Majesty from him 
eighteen large horses and several chests of gold and 
silver money. The intimation that the Royal 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 147 

suitor himself " would quickly follow in person, 
to lay his heart at her feet," caused considerable 
perplexity to Elizabeth and her Council about the 
manner of receiving in the Palace the Swedish 
King, who was accounted the handsomest man in 
Europe, " the Queen's Majesty being a maid." 

Bishop Jewel observes that Eric and the Arch- 
duke Charles " are courting at a most marvelous 
rate." Queen Elizabeth, perhaps to dampen the 
ardour of Eric, whose suit was becoming too urgent 
for her purposes, seemed now to encourage the 
Austrian, and remarked that " among the many 
most honourable matches propounded, none was 
more honourable than this with Charles of Austria, 
but neither the storm of danger before, nor the 
fair gale of honour now could remove her from the 
course of life begun. Yet not so far that she 
would flatly renounce a wedded life, and she hoped 
that God, upon whose bounty she relied wholly, 
would, in these and other matters, direct her coun- 
sels to her own and her people's safety." The 
King of Denmark and the second son of the King 
of Saxony were among the Queen's numerous 
suitors. While she was amusing herself with these 
courtships, Adolphus, Duke of Holstein, was sent 
over by his uncle, the Danish King, to try his' luck 
with the Maiden Monarch. He had been encour- 
aged to come by a letter Queen Elizabeth wrote 
him, in which she " most lovingly promised him 
kindness," and wished that " he were joined to Eng- 
land in some nearness' as he had been in time past 



148 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

to the Spaniards." He was young, handsome, and 
desperately in earnest, and it was rumoured among 
the Court gossips " that Her Majesty was very 
fond of him." Nevertheless he was rejected like 
the rest of her wooers, but she treated him with 
great distinction, conferred upon him the Order 
of the Garter, gave him a yearly pension, and, 
by her kindness, bound him to her as a firm friend. 
After the return of Holstein, Jewel writes, " The 
Swede is reported to be always coming, and even 
now to be on his voyage and on the eve of landing ; 
but, as far as I can judge, he will not stir a foot." 
After all, Eric never came, believing that his jour- 
ney would be useless. He finally married one of 
his own subjects. 

It was generally believed in England that Queen 
Elizabeth refused her Royal suitors because she 
had promised to marry Dudley, although she de- 
clared that " she was as free from any engagement 
to marry as" on the day of her birth, no matter 
what the world might think or say, but she had 
quite made up her mind to marry nobody whom 
she had not seen or known, and therefore she might 
be obliged to marry in England, in which case she 
thought she could find no person more fitting than 
Lord Robert." 

The pretentions of Dudley aroused the jealous 
ire of the old Earl of Arundel, and open quarrels 
broke out between these two Nobles, in which their 
servants and followers warmly engaged, so that 
the Court was filled with the sound of their brawls 



QUEEN ELIZABETH im 

and Her Majesty's name was bandied about among 
them in a manner derogatory to her royal dignity. 
In 1564, Catherine de' Medici suggested a mar- 
riage between her son, Charles IX, the boy-king of 
France, who was about sixteen, and Queen Eliza- 
beth, who was now thirty-one. The Queen Mother 
instructed her Ambassador, Paul de F'oys, to urge 
Leicester's suit if Elizabeth did not favour the 
marriage with Charles, in order that no powerful 
foreign Prince might be her consort. 
.. Queen Elizabeth received the Envoy in her Privy 
Chamber, as he had told her that he had something 
of the utmost importance to communicate to her, 
and that he wished to disclose it to her in a most 
secluded place. He read her Catherine's letter, 
which was filled with fulsome praises of the Eng- 
lish Queen. The wily Catherine, who knew how 
fastidious the Virgin Queen was, took pains to as- 
sure her that she would be well pleased both with 
the body and mind of her son. The Maiden Maj- 
esty of England blushed several times during the 
reading of this flattering letter. At its conclusion, 
she told de F'oys, with much eiFusion, that she was 
highly honoured by the offer and regretted that 
she was not ten years younger. She feared the 
disadvantages which would result from their dis- 
parity of ages, and said she " would rather die 
than be some day despised and abandoned as her 
sister Mary had been by the Prince of Spain." 
De Foys sought to reassure her, but Elizabeth in- 
sisted that she could not risk being scorned and 



150 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

abandoned. She said her subjects would agree to 
her wishes, although they would prefer her to 
choose an Englishman, but the only one suita- 
ble was the Earl of Arundel, " and he," she af- 
firmed, " is further from it than the east from the 
west. As for the Earl of Leicester, I have al- 
ways loved his virtues, but the aspiration to honour 
and greatness which is in me, could not suffer him 
as a companion and a husband." She added, smil- 
ing, that her neighbour, Mary Stuart, " was 
younger than she, and might perhaps please 
Charles better." When de Foys asked her to 
keep this affair secret, she replied that " she had 
sufficiently proved in the reign of Queen Mary 
that she knew how to keep silence ; if she had been 
discovered in anything, it would have cost her her 
life." She asked for a few days in which to re- 
flect, and then dismissed de Foys. 

Queen Elizabeth, however, discussed the offer 
with Cecil, who raised many objections. Some 
days later she sent for the French Ambassador, 
and told him there were three difficulties in the way 
of the marriage: First, the disparity of ages; 
then, the King could not live in England, nor she 
in France; lastly, the English feared the power 
and influence of the French. De Foys tried to 
refute these arguments, but the Queen delayed the 
negotiations, and finally broke them off. The 
rumour of her contemplated alliance with France 
had brought her just what she had hoped it would 
do — another offer from Austria of the Archduke 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 161 

Charles. She invited his Ambassador, Swetkowitz, 
to dinner in her private apartments, and played 
before him on the lute and the spinnet, which was 
a high mark of favour. De Foys, fearing that Her 
Majesty was really in earnest this time, urged her 
to accept the young French king. " You have 
under your hand, in the person of Charles IX, a 
veritable shield, why don't you take him? " he 
asked. Queen Elizabeth quickly replied that " she 
did not deem herself worthy of such a treasure." 
^ Then, in accordance with Catherine's' injunc- 
tions, the perplexed Ambassador urged her to ac- 
cept Leicester as a husband. " I have not yet 
decided whom I shall marry," she replied, " but, 
whoever he may be, though he were a man of but 
small consequence, he would gain much power by 
the marriage and be enabled, if he were so minded, 
to execute dangerous plans. I have, therefore, de- 
termined not to give up to my future husband any 
portion of my power, possessions or revenue. 
Though you counsel me to marry one of my sub- 
jects, I shall not accept your advice in the event 
of my marrying. If, however, I do think of 
marrying, it is as if some one were rending my 
heart from my body, so adverse am I to it by 
nature, and nothing but the welfare of my people 
could constrain me to it." To awe France, she 
hinted to him that she could at that time marry 
a King or powerful Prince, if she pleased. 

About three months later, the Queen's favour 
and friendship for Leicester had increased to such 



152 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

a degree that he himself boldly told Cecil that he 
aspired to her hand, and believed he had a good 
chance of success. Upon learning this, Catherine 
and Charles asked Queen Elizabeth to send Leices- 
ter to France for a time. They wished to cement 
their own interests with this rising star. The Earl 
stated to Elizabeth that he " ardently desired to 
go and humbly requested her permission." But 
Her Maj esty was angry and suspicious at his eager- 
ness to visit France, and said it would not be con- 
ducive to the maintenance of her dignity if she 
sent " a groom to so great a Prince." To soften 
this ungracious refusal, she added, with a smile, 
" I cannot live without seeing you every day, for 
you are like my little dog, as soon as people see 
him anywhere, they say that I am coming, and 
when they see you, they may say likewise that I 
am not far off." 

According to de Foys, the Queen promised to 
give Leicester a definite answer to his suit 
by Candlemas, 1565. Nevertheless, Candlemas 
passed by without the promised decision, and de 
Foys writes that the Earl of Ormond is now in 
high favour and Leicester very apprehensive. The 
Archduke Charles was his most formidable rival, 
but there were two strong objections to him: his 
religion, and the fact that he would have to be 
dependent on the Queen for his income. She com- 
plained that she did not care " to marry a man 
whom she would have to feed, and let the world 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 153 

say she had taken a husband who could not afford 
to support himself." 

There were various difficulties in the way of re- 
ligion, the Queen was willing to allow him to have 
Mass privately in his own chamber, but insisted 
that he must conform outwardly to the Church of 
England and accompany her publicly to Protest- 
ant service. Cecil, Sussex, Bacon and the Duke 
of Norfolk urged her to marry the Archduke and 
settle the succession, while Leicester urged his 
own suit so ardently that the Queen told Sussex 
" Robert pressed her so that he did not leave her a 
moment's' peace." By favouring alternately the 
Archduke and Leicester, Queen Elizabeth skilfully 
played off France against Spain, and Protestant 
against Catholic, at the same time escaping a 
husband. Leicester's suit was warmly seconded 
by France, since Philip of Spain supported the 
Austrian match, although the Spanish Ambassador 
privately assured Leicester of Philip's good-will 
toward him, when it was seen that the Austrian 
Emperor's terms were really impossible. When- 
ever matters did not appear to be going to Leices- 
ter's liking he would go away in a fit of the sulks", 
whereupon the Queen would recall him and flatter 
him into good humour again. The quarrels be- 
tween him and his enemies became so bitter that 
Elizabeth imperiously insisted upon his making 
friends with the Earl of Sussex, and also forced 
him into a hollow reconciliation with his hand- 



154 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

some young rival, Ormond. The Court had be- 
come a hot-bed of intrigue and uncertainty. 

In August, 1566, Leicester, with smiles and 
tears, tells La Forest, who was then French Am- 
bassador, that he doesn't know whether to hope 
or fear and that he is more uncertain than ever 
whether the Queen will marry or not, and, if she 
does, so many great Princes are wooing her that 
he fears for himself. Later on, speaking more 
openly, he declares his' firm belief is that she will 
never marry, for he has known her from the time 
she was eight years old, and she has always de- 
clared that she would remain unmarried. " But," 
he added, " should she happen to decide upon 
marrying, and to choose an Englishman, I am 
almost assured that she would choose no other 
than me; at least, Her Majesty has done me the 
honour to tell me so alone several times, and I 
stand as high in her favour now as ever." 

When Parliament met in October, 1566, both 
Houses, in spite of Cecil's efforts' to prevent, drew 
up and presented to Her Majesty a petition, en- 
treating her either to marry or name her successor. 
Queen Elizabeth heard them through with marked 
displeasure and impatience, and, in the spirit of 
Henry VIII, ordered them to " attend to their own 
duties and she would perform hers." She was 
highly indignant when the Commons passed a vote 
that the bill for the supplies she needed should 
be incorporated with a bill for settling the suc- 
cession. So she sent for the leaders of both 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 155 

Houses and poured upon them the full torrent of 
her wrath, telling them that "she did not choose 
that her grave should be dug while she was yet 
alive ; that the Commons had acted like rebels, and 
the Lords might pass a similar vote if they pleased, 
but their votes were but empty breath without her 
Royal assent." 

The Duke of Norfolk, the foremost Peer in 
England, was overwhelmed and crushed by Her 
Majesty's vehement anger. She called him 
" traitor," " conspirator," and many other like 
names. The poor Duke, completely humiliated, 
could only stammer out excuses for not asking her 
pardon since he had offended her so. Then, dis- 
missing the embarrassed Norfolk, the irate Queen 
received in like manner Leicester, Northampton, 
Pembroke and Howard. Pembroke, who ventured 
to remonstrate with her upon her treatment of 
Norfolk, she termed a "swaggering trooper " and 
" an imbecile who didn't know what he was talk- 
ing about." Northampton she reproached for his 
recent divorce, bidding him look after his own 
matrimonial tangles and not " mince words " with 
her. Turning to Leicester, she said, reproach- 
fully, " Do you, too, abandon me? " " I am ready 
to die for you," he cried. " Who asks you to 
die.f^ " she retorted sharply; "that is not to the 
purpose." 

After this stormy interview, the Lords requested 
the Spanish Ambassador to urge their angry Sov- 
ereign to decide definitely upon the Archduke 



156 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Charles. The next day, she summoned the Am- 
bassador and complained bitterly to him of the 
pressure put upon her by her ministers. She was 
particularly bitter against Leicester, whom she had 
banished from her presence. Heated debates and 
party recriminations continued until the Queen, 
by alternate threats and flattery, bent both Houses 
of Parliament completely to her will and got her 
subsidies voted, without declaring her successor. 
An extra subsidy was off*ered her if she would name 
her successor, but this she refused to do, saying 
that she would be content with half, since she be"- 
lieved that " money in her subjects' coff^ers was 
as good as in her own." This gracious observa- 
tion so delighted the now cowed and obedient mem- 
bers of Parliament that they hastened to offer a 
really generous supply, unfettered by any condi- 
tions whatsoever. As soon as Queen Elizabeth 
had gained what she wanted, she dissolved Parlia- 
ment on January 15th. On this day she made a 
short speech from the Throne, after the Lord 
Keeper Bacon had finished his address. 

"Whereas, Princes' words do enter more deeply 
into men's ears and minds, take these things from 
our own mouth," she said, with majestic dignity. 
" Do ye think that we neglect your safety and se- 
curity as to the succession, or that we have a will 
to infringe your liberty? Be it far from us. We 
never thought it. But indeed we thought good 
to call you back when you were running into a pit. 
Everything has' his fit reason. Ye may, perad- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 157 

venture, have a wiser Prince, but a more loving 
towards you ye shall never have. For our part, 
whether we may see such a Parliament again, we 
know not; but for you, take ye heed lest ye pro- 
voke your Prince's patience. Nevertheless, of this 
be assured, that we think very well of most of you, 
and do embrace every one of you with our former 
kindness, even from our heart." 

In 1568, the Austrian match was practically 
abandoned, although an attempt to revive the ne- 
gotiations was made in 1570, but the Archduke 
was already engaged to a Catholic Princess. The 
Emperor sent back a polite refusal to the English 
Queen, some compliments and a silver vessel, 
hoping that " she would henceforward regard the 
Archduke in the light of a brother." Queen 
Elizabeth's matrimonial professions were coming 
to be considered as mere convenient pretences. 
The Maiden Monarch, however, was greatly dis- 
pleased at the refusal of her offer, which she had 
no idea of seriously adhering to, and declared that 
the Emperor had offered her such an insult that if 
she were a man " she would have defied him to 
single combat." Her anger against the Emperor 
was' increased, no doubt, by the fact that just 
before this he had betrothed his second daughter 
to Charles IX, whom she, Elizabeth, had definitely 
refused, saying that he was " too big and too 
little." 

In August of this year, the long civil war in 
France was brought to an end by the treaty of St. 



158 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Germain between Charles IX and the Huguenots. 
When France was at peace, Queen Ehzabeth was 
always apprehensive that the Guises and the Cath- 
olic party in France would carry out their cherished 
scheme of rescuing the Queen of Scots by force 
with the aid of the Pope, then marry her to the 
Duke of Anjou, the brother of Charles IX, and 
place her on the English Throne. Accordingly, 
Queen Elizabeth was disposed to look with favour 
upon the proposal of the two great Huguenot No- 
bles, the Vidame de Chartres and Cardinal Chatil- 
lon, that she herself marry Anjou. When the 
Queen Mother was approached on the subject, she 
ordered her Ambassador, La Mothe-Fenelon, to 
push the matter forward at every opportunity, al- 
though she suspected that this was only another 
trick of Elizabeth's to prolong the negotiations 
and make use of the French in the meantime. She 
added that if the Queen of England had a daughter 
or heiress she would be a more suitable match for 
Anjou than the Queen herself. Before writing to 
Catherine, La Mothe had interviewed Leicester, 
and, hinting that a marriage had been suggested 
between the Queen and Anjou, asked his aid in 
the matter, saying that the French regarded him 
as their best friend. Leicester replied that he had 
always been opposed to the Austrian alliance, and 
that as Queen Elizabeth had made up her mind not 
to marry a subject, he would be willing to sacrifice 
his own chances and favour Anjou. He said the 
matter could be discussed at length when the Court 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 169 

returned to London, but, in the meantime, it would 
be well to speak to the Queen privately about it. 
So he introduced La Mothe into the Presence at 
Hampton Court. 

Queen Elizabeth had evidently been forewarned 
of the Ambassador's visit, for she was dressed even 
more elaborately than usual. When, after a few 
words of preamble, Anjou was proposed to her, 
she made an ambiguous' reply, saying that she was 
growing old, and, if it were not for the lack of an 
heir, she would be ashamed to think of marriage, 
as she was one of those women whom men wish 
to marry for their Kingdom, and not for their per- 
sons. 

Catherine had commanded La Mothe to preserve 
strict secrecy in the matter, but Elizabeth dis- 
cussed it with her ladies and others of the Court, 
so it soon became common talk. 

In another interview with the Ambassador, 
Queen Elizabeth appeared very favourable to the 
match, but complained of the disparity of ages — 
she was thirty-seven and Anjou was just twenty. 
" So much the better for you," said La Mothe, 
laughing. On another occasion, he praised the 
happiness of Charles IX with his Austrian bride 
and advised all Princesses, who were desirous of 
marital bliss, to take a husband from the House of 
France. The Queen thereupon cited some striking 
examples to the contrary, and said, " I want my 
husband not only to honour me as Queen, but to 
love me for myself." La Mothe assured her that 



160 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Anjou would do both, and she replied she had al- 
ways heard him spoken of with high praises. 

The Queen, after some demurs, referred the 
matter to her Council. One member only re- 
marked that the Duke seemed rather young for the 
Queen, but did not urge his objections, as Her 
Majesty appeared highly offended. The other 
ministers were silent, overcome with surprise that 
their critical Mistress should be so determined on 
this marriage. 

The Queen now would talk of nothing else; she 
discussed it fully with Ladies Cobham and Clinton, 
and the whole Court was filled with tales of the 
Duke's' personal attractions and his reported gal- 
lantries. Cecil favoured the marriage, and Wal- 
singham was sent as Ambassador to France and 
commanded by the Virgin Queen to send back a 
description of her youthful suitor. He appears 
to have been good-looking enough, but completely 
dominated by voluptuousness and the influence of 
the monks, who exhorted him not to marry " a 
heretic woman." 

The chief difficulty in the way of the marriage 
appeared to be the matter of religion. Although 
Elizabeth this time seemed to be bent upon marry- 
ing, she persistently declared she would not allow 
Anjou the public exercise of his religion. Cath- 
erine became suspicious of the Queen's real inten- 
tions and would not gratify her desire that Anjou 
should be sent into England to be inspected. The 
Duke himself said, " I fear that the Queen of Eng- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 161 

land has no other aim but that of amusing us. Un- 
less I get a decisive reply, I do not wish to adyance 
a step further." 

But Queen Elizabeth would give no decisive 
answer, although professing great eagerness for 
the marriage. La Mothe begged her to reply to 
a letter Anjou had written her. For a long time 
she refused, alleging that " the pen would fall from 
her hands and she would not know what to say 
to the Duke, because she had never written to any 
of the Princes who had sought her hand, with the 
exception of the Archduke Charles, and then in 
terms far removed from marriage." She finally 
yielded and wrote a letter which was a curious mix- 
ture of shrewd statecraft and amourous frivolity, 
praising the beauty of the Duke, and, above all, the 
beauty of his hand, which was considered one of the 
most beautiful in France. Sighing, she said, 
" For seven or eight years his good looks will in- 
crease, while I shall be old." 

' She then asked the Ambassador if he had spoken 
to Anjou of her foot, her arm, and other things 
which she would not mention. She admitted softly 
that she found the Duke " very desirable." La 
Mothe, with courtier-like insinuation, observed 
that " both were very desirable," and that " it was 
a pity they could not have become sooner pos- 
sessors of each other's perfections," and then he 
departed, full of hope that his mission would suc- 
ceed. 

But the next morning, the Queen's mood had 



162 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

changed; she received him with an ominous frown, 
and said that she had just heard that a great 
Nobleman at the French Court had remarked, be- 
fore many people, that she had an incurable dis- 
ease in one of her legs, and that this would be 
an excellent excuse for Anjou, after the mar- 
riage, to give her a " French potion " and then to 
marry the Queen of Scots. Elizabeth did happen 
at that time to be suffering from a temporary 
lameness and was greatly enraged at the perverted 
report of it. She refused to divulge the name of 
the narrator, but threatened to renew her relations 
with Philip of Spain. Her anger finally cooled, 
but the sore rankled for a time. When she saw 
La Mothe again, she said " she regretted that he 
had not come to a ball given by the Marquis of 
Northampton, for he would have seen her dance, 
and could have assured the Duke that he was not 
in danger of marrying a lame woman." 

Catherine declared that she was discontented 
with the religious conditions and that her son, by 
accepting them, would be virtually changing his 
religion. As Queen Elizabeth could not afford to 
lose the support of France, now of all times, when 
there was no doubt that Spain and the Holy 
League had determined to crush her, she feigned 
to be more conciliating on the score of religion 
than her ministers, and promised to close her eyes 
if the Duke wished to celebrate a private Mass. 
To gain time and avoid a definite reply, she af- 
fected to be very superstitious and feared lest 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 163 

something in the marriage ceremony should offend 
Anjou and cause him to leave her later, or, worse 
misfortune of all, the wedding ring might fall to 
the floor. 

Suspicious as this fencing rendered Catherine, 
she was obliged, for her own interests, to keep up 
ostensibly the negotiations'. She did, however, beg 
for more moderate conditions, as Anjou was firm 
in declaring that " his conscience " would not per- 
mit him to attend English service. With much 
difficulty, Cecil wrung from the Queen a reluctant 
authorization to draw up amended marriage 
propositions. As soon as Elizabeth saw that the 
French were disposed to give way in the matter 
of religion, she demanded the restitution of Calais. 
Full of apprehension at this bold demand, Cecil 
represented to her that if France refused her con- 
ditions a Catholic invasion would undoubtedly 
take place. She pretended to be convinced of the 
truth of this and allowed Cecil to continue his 
work. But Queen Elizabeth, who intended to slip 
out of the Anjou match ultimately and yet to 
keep up the fiction until it had served her turn, 
now brought forward other excuses. She feared 
she was not well enough, nor was she sufficiently 
prepared for marriage. She wanted to wait until 
she was in better health. Catherine became very 
uneasy at these delays and excuses, nor was she 
reassured by receiving from the English Queen 
letters filled with protestations of friendship. She 
knew her of old. With a view of discovering 



164 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

just how the ground lay, the Queen Mother sent 
her agents, Larchant and Cavalcanti, into England 
to present to Queen Elizabeth a portrait of the 
Duke of Anjou. 

When the Envoys reached London, they were 
informed that on the preceding night, Queen 
Elizabeth, while undressing, had sprained her foot, 
and could not see them for a week. 

When they were finally admitted to the Presence, 
they found the Queen resolute in refusing any con- 
cession whatever. She even revoked what she had 
formerly offered, and now would not allow the 
Duke to have even a private Mass. Nevertheless, 
she appeared very gracious and charming and ex- 
pressed herself delighted with the Duke's picture. 
She said she was glad to see in Anjou " the ma- 
turity of a man," because she did not want to 
be led to the altar by a man who appeared as 
young as the Earl of Oxford, for fear their dis- 
parity in ages would be too marked. La Mothe- 
Fenelon, with true French gallantry, replied that 
" years could not rob her of any of her beauty 
and charms." 

Although she wrote, of her own accord, an af- 
fectionate, but ambiguous letter to Anjou, she did 
not remove the conditions of religion of which 
Catherine and her son complained. The Queen 
Mother might have waived these difficulties, but 
Anjou was obdurate. He showed signs of active 
disobedience and defiance, and spoke slightingly 
of his proposed consort. Bitter quarrels on this 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 165 

subject broke out between him and Charles' IX. 
The king told him that he had insulted and de- 
ceived the Queen of England, whom, he Charles, 
esteemed and honoured. He told him that he knew 
his conscience had nothing to do with it, but that 
it was a substantial sum given him by the Clergy 
to be their champion that made him so obstinate. 
Anjou, not being able to deny the truth of this 
reflection, shut himself up in his rooms and wept 
all day, but he would not yield. He knew that 
Queen Elizabeth would never marry him, and that 
he was' saving himself the indignity of a refusal, 
and, at the same time, playing into the hands of 
the Holy League. So, after six months of ne- 
gotiations, the Anjou match was broken off, but, 
as Queen Elizabeth had shrewdly calculated, the 
defensive alliance with France, for which she had 
been angling, was in no' way weakened. Charles 
IX hastened to assure her that " he would honour 
her all his life for her upright dealing," and the 
resourceful Catherine de' Medici had another son 
to off^er her, the ugly, perverse, little Alen9on, just 
seventeen ! 



XIII 

MARRIAGE NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE 
DUKE OE ALENCON 

The hideously ugly, pock-marked imp, Fran9ois 
d'Alen9on, whom Catherine de' Medici in 1572 
gravely proposed as a husband for the dainty 
Queen of England, was described by the Queen 
Mother, when he was nine years old, as " a little 
blackamoor, who had only war and discord in 
his brain." As a child, he had such bitter hatred 
for his brother, Anjou, his mother's " idol," that 
Catherine was obliged to separate the two and 
bring Alen9on up alone. Before he was a man, 
he attached himself to all those whom Anjou dis- 
liked and distrusted. 

Immediately after Queen Elizabeth had con- 
cluded with France the defensive alliance for 
which she had been so long negotiating. La Mothe- 
Fenelon, at the instance of Catherine, proposed 
Alen9on to Burleigh, telling him that the Queen 
Mother gave assurance that her youngest son 
" would make no scruple about religion," nor 
would he consider himself " inevitably damned " — 
as Anjou did — if he could not have full Mass. 

When Burleigh spoke to his Sovereign of the new 
166 



QUEEN ELIZABETH . 167 

offer, she said the disparity of ages' was too great, 
and asked how tall he really was. " About as tall 
as I am," was the evasive reply. " You mean as 
tall as your grandson," retorted the Queen, and 
he dared not reply. 

Marshal de Montmorency, together with Paul 
de Foys, was dispatched to ask officially for the 
Hand of Queen Elizabeth. Cavalcanti, the Italian 
agent of Catherine, was' sent ahead to reconnoitre. 
He carried with him a very flattering picture of 
Alen9on, which he entrusted to Leicester to give to 
the Queen. Her Majesty said she did not like this 
portrait as well as Anjou's, but he seemed better 
looking than she had expected. She told Leices- 
ter that the marks of the small-pox, which Alen9on 
had recently had, might disappear with time, but, 
as he was seventeen and she thirty-eight, the dis- 
advantages which she had feared in the case of his 
elder brother would be still more to be feared in 
his case. 

When Montmorency arrived, the Queen received 
him very graciously, but took care, as usual, to 
say nothing that would in any way commit her- 
self. She accused the Envoys of talking only gen- 
eralities, whereas' " she desired to enter into par- 
ticularities, especially on the important subject of 
religion." They assured her that everything 
would be arranged to her entire satisfaction. 
Alen9on, they said, would be content with the con- 
cessions granted to Anjou. 

" I don't recall having made any concessions," 



168 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

replied the Queen. " The desire of assuring the 
security of my subjects is the only thing which 
can make me overlook the disparity of ages." 

The Envoys went on to say that the Duke asked 
only for a private Mass, and would be willing to at- 
tend other services that were not " too contrary 
to his religion." The Queen asked if he could not 
get along for a while without even his private 
Mass if, as was not unlikely, it should cause trouble 
among her subjects. De Foys intimated that he 
would, " For every wise Prince," he said, " seeks 
to avoid the cause of troubles." 

Then Queen Elizabeth fell to recounting with 
evident relish, the personal defects of the ill- 
favoured stripling, whom Catherine had designated 
as her future consort. With grave countenance, 
she demanded of the Ambassador, " what com- 
pensation is to be made to her, in the marriage 
articles, for the injury to his face from the small 
pox ? " and hinted that the restitution of Calais 
would be a fitting compensation. In spite of the 
political expediency which rendered it necessary 
for the English Queen to keep on friendly terms 
with France, she could not entirely conceal her 
scorn of the ridiculous offer made her, but dis- 
cussed the scion of the House of Valois from head 
to foot, with as little ceremony as though she were 
bargaining for a pet dog. She then delayed her 
reply until the next day, when she was as evasive 
as ever. Although she secretly mocked at the ill- 
conditioned Alen9on, she entertained Montmorency 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 169 

and de Foys for two weeks with fetes and ban- 
quets. 

Upon the departure of the Ambassador, Burleigh 
writes Walsingham " the Ambassadors did all they 
could in the matter of the Due d'Alen9on, but got 
from Her Majesty neither yea nor nay, but the 
delay of a month, in which she was to make up her 
mind." 

When Lord Admiral Clinton returned from 
France, where he had been splendidly entertained 
by Catherine, he told Queen Elizabeth that Alen- 
9on was superior to Anjou in appearance and 
repute. But Her Majesty replied that " he did 
not approach the Duke of Anjou and his pock 
marks did not tend to improve his appearance." 
To satisfy herself, she demanded from Walsingham 
exact personal details concerning Alen9on : — his 
age, height, religious inclination, and the tastes 
and amusements of himself and his friends. Wals- 
ingham gave a favourable description of his pur- 
suits and pleasures, but was careful to abstain 
from remarks on his personal appearance. He 
added to his account, " I have heard from many 
sides that he has a lively and sincere passion for 
Your Majesty." 

After the month's delay that she had asked 
for, the Queen wrote to Walsingham : " We can- 
not decide on the marriage, unless it is accompa- 
nied by great advantages to' counterbalance the 
ridiculous judgements that will be passed on it." 
In this letter, she hinted that she would like to see 



170 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Alen9on with her own eyes, because none of her 
subjects dared tell their real opinion. Catherine 
said she would consent to an interview, if she was 
assured of success. Elizabeth, of course, would 
bind herself to no promise. So the negotiation 
rested in suspense. 

Then Alen^on sent his most intimate confidant. 
La Mole, to the Queen, ostensibly to thank her for 
the magnificent reception she gave to Montmorency, 
and also to announce the marriage of his' sister 
Marguerite to Henry of Navarre. When La 
Mole arrived. Queen Elizabeth was preparing for 
one of her customary progresses, and so put off 
seeing him for a few days. When she did admit 
him to her presence, she appeared delighted with 
his suave and courteous manners. She told him 
that she desired to see Alen9on only to find out if 
she were really loved. She took the ingratiating 
La Mole, and also La Mothe-Fenelon, in her 
suite to Kenilworth, where Leicester had prepared 
a sumptuous banquet in her honour. On the next 
day, she led the gallant Frenchmen to the house 
of Lord Burleigh, where she was again the honoured 
guest at another great dinner. On this occasion, 
she said that " Walsingham had misinterpreted and 
badly expressed her thought; she had never said 
her marriage with the Duke was impossible, but 
had only alluded to certain difficulties." She con- 
tinued to show extraordinary marks of favour to 
the Envoys, even playing before them on the spin- 
net. In the presence of her ministers, she told them 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 171 

" in a sweet, sympathetic voice," that " she is re- 
solved to marry, but desires to see her suitor first." 
Everything appeared favourable and everybody 
urged Alen9on to come when, like a thunderbolt 
from a clear sky, occurred the bloody massacre of 
St. Bartholomew on August M, 157^. 
^ The Queen was hunting at Kenilworth when the 
dreadful news arrived. She seemed stunned at 
the blow which appeared to be aimed at herself, as 
well as at the Protestants of France. All re- 
joicings and merriment were abruptly stopped, 
mourning garb was put on, and anxious conferences 
held. The very name of Frenchman was abhorred, 
La Mole fled in haste from England, and La Mothe 
was commanded by Elizabeth to keep strictly within 
his house, until she was assured that her Am- 
bassadors in France were safe. It devolved upon 
La Mothe, who was deeply mortified and grieved 
at this atrocious act of Charles IX and his mother, 
to explain and extenuate it as much as possible. 
But Queen Elizabeth would not see the luckless 
Ambassador until September 7th, when she finally 
consented to receive him at Woodstock on her way 
to Windsor. He was conducted to the Privy 
Chamber, where he found the Queen, clad in deepest 
mourning and surrounded by her Councillors and 
the principal ladies of her Court, all of whom wore 
the same sombre garb as their Mistress. There was 
a solemn and ominous silence as the Ambassador 
entered in fear and trepidation, then, after a short 
pause. Queen Elizabeth advanced toward him, with 



m QUEEN ELIZABETH 

grave, stern mien, but with her customary courtesy 
Leading him apart from the rest, she asked him in 
cold, dehberate manner, " If it were possible that 
the strange news she had heard of the Prince whom 
she so much loved, honoured, and confided in of all 
the world, could be true." 

La Mothe made the most plausible excuse that 
he could; repeated the story that Coligny had 
plotted with the Huguenots to seize the Louvre; 
and pleaded that the massacre was* unpremeditated, 
and that the King had sacrificed Coligny only to 
save himself. The Queen interrupted the Envoy 
in the midst of his attempts to explain, telling 
him that she knew too much of the affair to be 
deceived or to give entire credence to the King's 
excuses. " I fear," she said, " that those who have 
made the King abandon the Protestants will also 
make him abandon my friendship." She then dis- 
missed La Mothe. 

Soon after the massacre, Catherine de' Medici 
sought to rectify the mistake she had made by 
again favouring the Huguenots and again urging 
the Alen9on match. Alen9on, so far from taking 
a share in the massacre, had publicly and loudly 
condemned it, and taken the part of the Hugue- 
nots'; but the atrocious act had rendered the nego- 
tiations for the Queen's marriage to a Frenchman 
and a Catholic most distasteful to the English 
people, and so they were apparently dropped, al- 
though tender missives continued to arrive from 
Alen9on, and a secret communication between Eliz- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 173 

abeth and the Court of France was still carried 
on through La Mothe. 

On November l^th, Castelnau de la Mauvissiere 
came over and succeeded in inducing Queen Eliza- 
beth to stand sponsor to the infant daughter of 
Charles IX. She said she would not, however, 
proceed further in the matter of the marriage, 
unless good terms were offered to the Huguenots 
and peace made at Rochelle, which was heroically 
resisting its Catholic besiegers, under the Duke of 
Anjou, and the young Alen9on, who had been 
forced, much against his" will, to accompany his 
brother. Catherine and Anjou were only too glad 
to come to terms with the Protestants, for they 
were heartily sick of the unsuccessful siege. Soon 
after the treaty was ratified, Anjou was elected to 
the Throne of Poland and a year later ascended 
that of France. 

At the beginning of the year 1574<, Mauvissiere 
arrived to try to persuade the Queen to conclude 
the matrimonial treaty between herself and Alen- 
9on. The Ambassador begged her to send him a 
safe conduct to visit her and plead his cause in 
person. But she feared that if she and the Duke 
had no liking for each other, it might impair the 
alliance between England and France, and so re- 
fused to grant him a public interview, but sug- 
gested that he come over " in some sort of disguise 
and not accompanied with any great train, for, if 
there follow no liking between us after a view taken 
the one of the other, the more secretly it will be 



174 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

handled, the least touch will it be to our honours." 
This plan of Elizabeth's for privately inspecting 
Alen9on did not please the Court of France, who 
desired to force her to commit herself irrevocably 
in the marriage negotiations. While other plans 
were being discussed, a political plot of which 
Alen9on was the head was suddenly discovered. 
Charles' IX was dying of consumption. His 
brother, Henry, King of Poland, who was his next 
heir, was absent, and the hopeful youth, Alen9on, 
was intriguing with the Protestant leaders for the 
Crown of France. This conspiracy was detected 
by the Queen Mother, who promptly imprisoned 
her youngest son and the King of Navarre in the 
Castle of Vincennes. 

To make peace with his own family, Alen9on be- 
trayed his allies', La Mole and Corconnas, and 
abandoned Protestant interests. The discovery of 
this plot caused an abrupt halt in the marriage 
treaty. When Catherine de' Medici asked Queen 
Elizabeth if she would go on with it, she replied 
that she could not think ill of a Prince who thought 
so well of her, but that she would not take a hus- 
band " with irons on his feet." Upon this hint, he 
was' released and employed by the English Queen 
as a willing tool for annoying the French govern- 
ment. 

Upon the accession of Henry III, when Alen9on 
was proposed again. Queen Elizabeth said that she 
would not marry him until he was on good terms 
with the King. " It is necessary," she observed, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 175 

" that he be a good son and a good brother before 
being a good husband." Catherine retorted that 
the best way for peace to be brought about, was' 
for Elizabeth to cease encouraging the rebels. 
Queen Elizabeth then offered to take upon herself 
the duty of mediator, but the Queen Mother pre- 
ferred to manage her affairs herself and refused 
this offer. 

After a semblance of peace had been made in 
the Royal family, the French Ambassador again 
urged the marriage, but Queen Elizabeth cut the 
interview short, and would promise nothing but a 
good reception toi the Duke if he came to see her. 
" The Duke only is to blame for this negotiation 
remaining two years in suspense," she declared. 
" I have no other reply to' make than that which I 
have made so many times. I shall never marry a 
Prince whom I have not seen. If, after we have 
seen each other, I do not accept the Duke and if 
he takes my refusal for an offence, it is better 
that he does not come. If, on the contrary, his 
protestations are sincere and if, in any event, he 
will remain my friend, let him come, but without 
a retinue ... let this be only a simple visit." 

Alen9on, who had now received the title of Duke 
of Anjou which Henry III had formerly borne, 
had been offered the protectorship of the Nether- 
lands. Queen Elizabeth herself had been first im- 
plored by the persecuted Protestants in the Nether- 
lands to become their Sovereign. She refused 
their offer for she was not yet ready for open war 



176 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

with Philip of Spain, but she privately supplied 
them with money and at last concluded with them 
an offensive and defensive alliance. When she 
learned of the protectorship of Alen9on, she feared 
that it might bring on annexation to France, and 
was determined to prevent it. She decided that 
the cheapest way would be to revive with zest the 
long neglected marriage comedy, which had been 
proposed six years before, and see if she could not 
make a tool of Alen9on and force him to do her 
work. In this manner, she could still cling to her 
policy of not actually throwing down the gauntlet 
to Philip. 

Alen9on now said that he would marry either 
the Queen of England or the Netherlands, and if 
she would not have him he would join the Span- 
iards. He informed her that if she would conclude 
the marriage " he would be directed by her in all 
his actions in the Low Countries." 

The clever Queen hastened to assure him of her 
affection and good intentions and made great ef- 
forts to! show special honour to his Envoys. She 
was on one of her progresses at the time of their 
arrival. At a banquet given in their honour, she 
thought there should have been more silver on the 
side-board to impress the visitors with her wealth 
and magnificence. She angrily asked Sussex, who 
was Lord Steward, why there was no more. He 
replied that he had always accompanied the Eng- 
lish Sovereigns on their progresses and they had 
never carried so much as she did. But the Queen 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 177 

was not to be mollified; she bade him hold his 
tongue, called him a " great rogue," and said the 
more she did for people like him the worse they 
acted. She asked the opinion of Lord North, who 
was a friend to Leicester, and he, of course, agreed 
that there was not enough silver and threw the 
blame on Sussex. The latter now became angry in 
his turn ; he waited outside for North, called him a 
" knave " and threatened to thrash him. Leicester 
was obliged to intervene, and the whole Court was 
stirred up to the infinite delight of the Spanish 
Ambassador, who immediately acquainted his mas- 
ter with all that had occurred. 

After Queen Elizabeth returned from her prog- 
ress, Alen9on sent to her Jean Simier, his master 
of the wardrobe, to plead his suit. He carried 
with him a letter from Catherine and Henry III, 
and a tender epistle from the young Duke, com- 
plaining of the tiresome life he was leading since 
he was deprived of seeing " the most perfect god- 
dess of the Heavens." Leicester and Hatton be- 
came violently jealous of the insinuating French- 
man, who proved so agreeable to the Queen that she 
invited him three times a week to' her private par- 
ties and seemed to take great delight in his com- 
pany. Aside from the fact that policy required 
her to be unusually gracious to the French Envoy, 
she appeared to be really charmed by his irresist- 
ible French gallantry and termed him her " faith- 
ful monkey." She played her part so well and 
showered so many favours on the " monkey " that 



178 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Leicester declared he had bewitched her. His con- 
stant attendance upon Her Majesty caused com- 
ment among the ill-disposed and remonstrances 
from others. But Elizabeth was determined to 
convince Alen9on this time of her sincerity in the 
matter of the marriage, and so continued to' bestow 
her delusive smiles upon his agent. Castelnau de 
la Mauvissiere, in a despatch to Catherine de' 
Medici, wrote: "His words rejuvenate the 
Queen, she has become more beautiful and more 
light-hearted than she was fifteen years ago." 

But Simier kept his master's interests at heart 
and demanded three conditions to the marriage: 
the crowning of the Duke soon after the ceremony ; 
a sort of joint control in the administration and 
distribution of charges and offices'; and 60,000 
livres annual income reversible in case of the pre- 
decease of the Queen. 

Elizabeth promised to give an answer in two 
days. In the meantime, she consulted Leicester, 
Sussex, and Cecil. They all unanimously rejected 
the second article and suggested that the other two 
be submitted to Parliament. 

When Simier learned of this decision he said he 
would waive the matter of the second article, but 
complained to the Queen that he was not being 
treated fairly. She swore that she would not be 
influenced by her Council and was determined to 
marry. She then wrote a letter to Alen9on, call- 
ing him her " very faithful friend " ; but after 
many protestations of affection, she concluded by 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 179 

bidding him be content with her unalterable love, 
which perchance was better than marriage for him 
and for her. 

The Duke took alarm at this, acquiesced in the 
decision of the Council, withdrew his conditions, 
asked only for private Mass for himself and his 
friends, and said he would come soon to claim his 
bride. 

This eager haste did not suit Queen Elizabeth's 
plans and she anxiously inquired of her ministers' 
if she could honourably refuse the interview, or, in 
case the Duke did not please her, if she could re- 
ject him without giving offence. They replied 
that the Duke's offer to visit her should be accepted 
and that she could not, with honour, refuse him 
until she had seen him. She decided to follow their 
advice and Simier wrote to Alen9on that he had 
at last convinced her that she was loved for herself 
and not for her Crown and that she said : " I do 
not doubt that if I am Monsieur's, he will esteem 
and honour me, but I fear he will love me only 
a year or two, nevertheless, I can promise him be- 
fore God that if he is a good husband, no one shall 
be a better wife than I." She now dressed herself 
and her Court after the French fashion and ap- 
peared more gracious than ever to " her little 
monkey," Simier. When one of her ministers re- 
proached her because of her friendship for the 
ingratiating foreigner, she answered that " he was 
no longer a stranger to her, but a faithful servant 
of her husband, knowing his secrets which she 



180 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

wanted to learn in order to be of more service to 
him when they were together." 

But soon after this the Queen began to cool and 
bring forward objections again, so that Catherine 
and even Simier doubted her sincerity. When she 
heard that Alen9on would arrive in the early part 
of August, she gave no orders for his reception, 
and Leicester was high in favour once more. It 
was then that Simier resolved to discredit the Earl 
who seemed the chief obstacle in his master's path, 
and revealed his secret marriage with the Countess' 
of Essex. The disclosure had the desired result 
and " mounseer," as the Duke was termed in Eng- 
land, made all haste to cross the seas in disguise, 
attended only by two servants, and suddenly ap- 
pearing at the gates of Greenwich Castle, demanded 
permission to fling himself at the feet of the Virgin 
Queen. 

Queen Elizabeth professed to be charmed with 
the romantic gallantry of her impatient suitor, who 
was small of stature and large of head, with a face 
disfigured by smallpox, and a nose ending in a 
huge knob that made it look like two noses. In 
addition to his other charms he had a harsh, croak- 
ing voice. The only pleasing thing about him 
was his conversation at which he was an adept. 
As Queen Elizabeth had no intention of marrying 
him, it cost her no pang to declare that she was 
enamoured of him and that he was just the sort 
of husband she should choose. He became very 
friendly with her and passed all the days of his 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 181 

visit in constant attendance upon her. She dubbed 
him her " frog " and kept him at her heels for a 
week, until his distrust of her real intentions was 
banished and he was convinced that she was actu- 
ally smitten with him. Upon one occasion he was 
hidden behind a curtain to view her dancing, and 
all the courtiers pretended to be ignorant of his 
presence, although he was only half-hidden by the 
arras. In the course of the dance, the Queen 
posed and made signals to him in order to make 
him think that she desired him to be smitten with 
her dancing. When Alen9on departed from Eng- 
land he flattered himself that he would have no 
difficulty in bending a love-sick Queen to his polit- 
ical designs. Little did he know his opponent. 
On his departure, in order to keep up the tender- 
ness, he wrote a series of amourous letters, suffi- 
cient, says Castelnau, " to set fire to water." In 
his first he wrote that " he was envious of his letter 
which would reach her hand and that he could not 
write at length because he was not himself, for he 
was ever staunching his tears which flowed without 
intermission." He swore that " he would love her 
forever and would remain her most faithful and 
aff^ectionate slave on earth." " As such on the 
shore of this turbid sea I kiss your feet," he con- 
cluded. 

At the same time Simier sent a letter to the 
Queen, which runs : " Madam, I must tell you how 
little sleep your ' frog ' had last night, for he did 
nothing but sigh and weep. At eight o'clock he 



182 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

made me get up to talk to him of your divine 
beauty and of his great grief at leaving Your Maj- 
esty, the jailer of his heart and the mistress of his 
liberty. I expect he will have a fair voyage, un- 
less he swell the waves with the abundance of his 
tears. The monkey takes the liberty of kissing 
your lovely hands." 

Other extravagant love missives of like tenor 
followed in close succession and Queen Elizabeth 
professed herself delighted with the Duke's ardour. 
On both sides there were protestations of undying 
affection, sweet promises, and much deceit. Un- 
fortunately, the Queen's acting was so realistic that 
it deceived her own subjects as well as the French, 
and there was lively opposition in England to the 
marriage, for hatred of Frenchmen was a ruling 
passion with most of the English. 

Toward the middle of September Simier suc- 
ceeded in dragging from Queen Elizabeth and her 
Council a draft agreement of the marriage articles, 
and departed for France, laden with gifts. In 
October of that year, 1579, the CouQcil decided 
that the possible dangers exceeded the benefits of 
the match, and begged the Queen to state her incli- 
nation " and they would endeavour to make them- 
selves conformable to it." Upon this. Her Majesty 
wept and railed at them, and reproached them for 
their long discussions " as if it were doubtful 
whether there would be more surety for her and 
her Realm, than if she were to marry and have a 
child of her own to inherit, and so to continue the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 18S 

line of Henry VIII." She peremptorily ordered 
them not to trouble her again until ' afternoon. 
When they again approached her she blazed forth 
into greater indignation. Says Burleigh: "Her 
answers were very sharp in reprehending all such 
as she thought would make argument against the 
marriage, and though she thought it not meet to 
declare to them whether she would marry or not, 
yet she looked from their hands that they should, 
with one accord, have made special suit to her for 
the same." 

'^ Francis Bacon, like his father, was a great ad- 
vocate for the celibacy of the Queen. " Female 
reigns," he says, " are usually eclipsed by marriage 
and all the glory transferred to the husband ; while 
those Queens who live single have none to share it 
with them. And this was more peculiarly the case 
of Queen Elizabeth, for she had no supporters of 
the government but those of her own making, — 
no brother, no uncle, nor any other of the Royal 
family to partake her cares and assist her gov- 
ernment. The ministers whom she advanced to 
places of trust she kept so tight a reign upon, 
and so dispensed her favours, that they were con- 
tinually solicitous to please her, while she ever 
remained mistress of herself." 

No one could discover the Queen's real inten- 
tions, but the people, who could only judge by ap- 
pearances, plainly showed their intense dislike of 
the marriage. The Puritan Stubbs published his 
book entitled " A Discovery of a Gaping Gulf 



184 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

wherein England is like to be swallowed by another 
French Marriage." Elizabeth rented her rage on 
the author, who had boldly told her of the dangers 
attendant upon marriage at her age. He was sen- 
tenced to have his hand cut off. After his right 
hand was cut off, he pulled off his hat with his 
left, and cried loudly, " God save Queen Eliza- 
beth ! " All London, like him, was opposed to the 
marriage and loyal to the Queen. 

Meanwhile presents and love-letters continued 
to speed between the Courts. of France and Eng- 
land. The Queen had quarrels with all her min- 
isters and even her " faithful sheep " Hatton was 
sent into the country to rusticate for a week, 
because he ventured to express his dislike of the 
marriage. Soon Elizabeth herself began to cool 
a little and sent Lord Stafford to demand of Alen- 
9on some restrictions in the exercise of his religion. 
This rendered Henry III suspicious again, and the 
Duke did not prove so yielding as he had been 
thought. He held to the articles' brought over by 
Simier. Catherine wrote a very affectionate letter 
to excuse her son's scruples, and Alen9on, seeing 
that Queen Elizabeth stood firm, finally yielded. 
It was only the interests of his own fortune that 
had made him hold out — he had been receiving 
money from the Catholics in Flanders. But he 
would not lead an army to help the revolted Neth- 
erlands, as Elizabeth urged him to do, until he 
had gained the marriage, and Henry HI, although 
ready and willing to assist him, refused to stir 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 185 

until the marriage was consummated and the Eng- 
lish Queen should openly declare herself his ally 
in war against Spain. 

Although all Europe was alarmed by the appar- 
ent increase of Spanish power through Philip's 
conquest of Portugal, the French King ignored 
Queen Elizabeth's constant exhortations that it 
was' his special duty to check the encroachments 
of Philip and persisted in his refusal to stir with- 
out the marriage. In this year, 1580, the match 
was generally belived to be abandoned, but the 
Queen saw the necessity of keeping up the farce 
if she was to have her way with the French King, 
so she concluded another treaty of marriage, but 
with the proviso that she should be allowed six 
weeks for the passing of private explanations be- 
tween herself and Alen9on. This was granted her, 
and to keep up the hopes of the French, she asked 
the French Ambassador to fix a date for the coming 
of the marriage commissioners. The " frog " and 
the " faithful monkey " waxed ardent again, and 
the latter wrote : " As for your frog his flame is 
immortal and his love for you can never end either 
in this world or the next. By God, Madam, lose 
no more time . . . allow Monseigneur soon to ap- 
proach your charms. This is the daily prayer of 
your monkey who kisses the shadow of your foot- 
steps." The Queen, as was her wont, sent back 
sweet words, but no decisive answer. She did, how- 
ever, furnish Alen9on with money and urged him 
to make a sudden attack on the Prince of Parma, 



186 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

who was besieging Cambray, near the French fron- 
tier. She was determined to make him her tool 
in Flanders or not have him there at all. If she 
failed in this, she would be satisfied with a per- 
petual alliance between France and England, or 
an open rupture between France and Spain. 

Alen9on, thinking that the Queen was now sin- 
cere, collected an army. His' undertaking was 
secretly encouraged by Henry III. When Eliza- 
beth thought they had sufficiently committed them- 
selves she sought to evade the marriage, telling 
them that it must again be deferred as her subjects 
disapproved. She said she could only join them 
in a defensive alliance, but would give a " reason- 
able " amount of money secretly. The French 
King was not so far committed but what he could 
draw back in time to escape a heavy war, but the 
luckless Alen^on, marching at the head of 15,000 
troops, was ashamed to withdraw and had to con- 
tinue on his way to Cambray. 

The embassy extraordinary, consisting of 500 
persons, which was sent from the Court of France 
to that of England, failed to win anything from 
the wary Queen but smiles' and fair words. The 
Prince Dauphin of Auvergne was the chief notable 
in the embassy, which included many great Lords. 
They were met in the Thames with the greatest 
honours at the command of Queen Elizabeth, and 
landed at the Tower amid a volley of artillery. 
They were received by the Queen at Westminster 
in the vast banqueting hall, which was hung with 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 187 

cloth of silver and gold. From festoons' of ivy, 
rosemary, and flowers hung pendants of fruits and 
vegetables. The ceiling was painted to represent 
the sky with stars and sunbeams intermingled with 
escutcheons of the Royal arms. The entire apart- 
ment was illumined with glass lustres'. Upon the 
elevated throne, surmounted by a silk-covered dais, 
sown with roses and pearls, sat Queen Elizabeth, 
attired in an elaborate robe of cloth of gold, orna- 
mented with a border of diamonds and rubies. 
Her Majesty was surrounded by the ladies' of her 
Court. All the members of the embassy, in rich 
apparel, bowed low in passing before the throne. 
The Queen arose as they entered, descended the 
dais, and, according to the custom, kissed the 
Dauphin on the mouth. The others she greeted 
with gracious words of welcome. The Dauphin, in 
token of respect, remained with his head uncovered, 
and twice the Queen bade him put on his hat, but 
he courteously replied that it was not meet for him 
to do so in her presence. The crowd was so great 
and the heat so stifling, that Queen Elizabeth did 
not remount the dais, but stood near a window 
opening on the Thames. 

The Envoys presented to her Lansac, an artist, 
who had been charged by Catherine de' Medici to 
paint her picture. Her Majesty said, smiling, 
that he would have to paint her with a veil over 
her face so that she might not appear too old. 

That day and the next was filled with entertain- 
ments, banquet followed banquet, but still no defi- 



188 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

nite answer could the Envoys wring from the 
Queen. At a grand ball given at Whitehall, she 
urged a closer alliance between England and 
France, but refused to' advance with the marriage 
till she had heard again from Alen9on. So the em- 
bassy was forced to depart, knowing as much, and 
no more, of Elizabeth's intentions, as when they had 
started. 

Walsingham complained bitterly of the situa- 
tion in which he found himself as Ambassador to 
France. "When they (the French)" he said, 
" press Elizabeth to marry, she holds before them 
the league, and when they ask her for money, she 
comes back to the marriage." 

When the Queen was assured that Alen9on was 
surely coming to visit her again, she knew that she 
had him in her toils, and sent word that she would 
not allow him now even a private Mass. But Alen- 
9on felt that a personal suit might yet win for him 
his reluctant bride, and trusting to his powers of 
love-making, he made haste to cross the seas once 
more. He felt the more confidence because he had 
forced the Prince of Parma to raise the siege of 
Cambray. The determined wooer arrived early 
in November, 1581. 

The Queen feigned to be delighted at his arrival, 
receiving him with smiles and blandishments, and 
hailing him as her " little Italian," and her " little 
frog Prince." In spite of his constant attendance 
upon her, Alen9on wrote her daily love letters, 
filled with extravagant protestations. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 189 

The Netherlands were urging the Duke to return 
to them and be installed in the sovereignty. Queen 
Elizabeth, too, added her pressure, but he was un- 
willing to leave her until he had gained the mar- 
riage. For three months then she tried every 
means and went to great lengths to convince him 
of her sincerity. She told the French Ambassador 
to write to his master that Alen9on should be her 
husband, and then, in the presence of her whole 
Court and the foreign Envoys, kissed her " Frog 
Prince " on the mouth, and, taking a ring from her 
own finger, placed it on his. This occurred on the 
anniversary of her Coronation and was regarded 
by those present as a definite pledge that she would 
marry Alen9on. The French and the Dutch, who 
were promptly informed of this scene by their 
Envoys, showed their delight by kindling great 
bonfires and setting off^ the ordnance guns. 

The English received the news in very different 
manner. Leicester, Hatton and Walsingham 
stormed and remonstrated, the ladies of the Court 
lamented and bewailed. Cecil alone was undis- 
mayed. " Thank God," he said, " the Queen has 
done all she can, it is for the country now to take 
the matter in hand." 

Queen Elizabeth passed a sleepless night amid 
her weeping and wailing ladies. The next morning 
she sent for Alen9on. She looked pale and shed a 
few tears. " Two more nights such as the last," 
she said, " would bring me to the grave." She told 
him she was torn by the conflicting emotions of love 



190 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

and duty and that " although her affection for him 
was undiminished, she had, after an agonizing 
struggle, determined to sacrifice her own happiness 
to the welfare of her people." 

Alencon flung himself out of the room in a great 
passion, throwing the Queen's ring upon the floor, 
and bitterly railing against '' the hghtness of 
women and the inconstancy of islanders." He 
then demanded instant leaye to return to the Neth- 
erlands, but Ehzabeth knew she could not afi'ord 
to let her rejected suitor depart in anger, so she 
implored him to remain, telling him she intended 
to marry him "at a more auspicious moment, but 
at present she was compelled to do yiolence to her 
own feelings." 

The Duke allowed himself to be deceived again 
and tarried for several weeks, hoping against hope. 
While he lingered the Queen continued to lavish 
upon him endearments and the most flattering 
attentions, but finally, at the end of January, she 
resolved to be rid of her importunate wooer. Tak- 
ing his hand in hers, she told him, in her sweetest 
voice, of her repugnance at marrying a Catholic. 
Thereupon he ofl^ered to become a Protestant. 

" We cannot command our hearts," she an- 
swered, and, lowering her eyes, confessed that " she 
no longer felt the same love for him." The Duke, 
rendered desperate at seeing the prize on which he 
counted slipping from him, cried out that " he had 
endured all the anguishes of passion and offended 
the whole Catholic party for her sake and that he 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 191 

would die with her rather than leave England 
without her." 

" It is a shame for jou to threaten thus an 
elderly woman in her own kingdom," said the 
Queen, indignantly. " You are a fool and you 
talk Hke a fool." At this the tears rolled down 
his cheeks, whereupon she gave him her handker- 
chief to dry them, and calmed him with a few 
caresses. But he understood that this was a defi- 
nite dismissal and that he had proved no match for 
the clever Queen, who had completely bent him 
to her own purposes. He was ashamed to return 
to France without his bride or his Belgian pos- 
sessions, so he accepted EHzabeth's solemn assur- 
ance that she would marry him when the " auspi- 
cious moment " should arrive, and allowed her to 
ship him off to the Netherlands. 

Queen EHzabeth then told Sussex that " mar- 
riage had always been distasteful to her, and now 
she hated it more every day for reasons which she 
would not di^Tilge to a twin soul, if she had one, 
much less to any living creature." 

To hasten Alencon's departure, the Queen armed 
some vessels and ordered levies to be raised for 
him. Publicly, she affected to deeply regret his 
leaving her, and presented him with a gift of £25,- 
000 to keep him good-natured. She told him 
that " a wound on his little finger would pierce her 
heart," and urged him to obtain help from Henry 
HI against Spain. She was determined, if possi- 
ble, to carry out her cherished plan of embroihng 



19^ QUEEN ELIZABETH 

France in a war with Spain. She forced Leicester 
and Hatton to attend the Duke on his journey to 
Holland, threatening them with dire penalties if 
they showed any disrespect to " the person she 
loved best in the world." By Leicester she sent 
secret instructions to the Prince of Orange to 
keep Alenfon in the Netherlands and never to al- 
low his return to England. She herself, however, 
accompanied the luckless youth as far as Canter- 
bury and promised to marry him if he returned 
in a month. She took an affectionate farewell of 
him, wept, and even put on mourning, but really 
rejoiced at regaining her treasured liberty. 

Tender missives' still continued. The Queen 
wrote that " she wished her dear frog were dis- 
porting in the clear waters of the Thames rather 
than in the sluggish streams of Holland," and de- 
clared that she would marry him if only Henry IH 
would keep his promise of giving aid against the 
Spaniards. But the French King refused to budge 
without the marriage, the failure of which Eliza- 
beth now blamed him for. 

Alen9on rendered himself odious to the Nether- 
lands by acts of treachery. Parma was capturing 
town after town, and in 1583, Alen9on, full of 
shame at his ill-success, and dying of consumption, 
left Holland forever. He died a year later. 

With the death of Alen9on, the final curtain was 
rung down on the long marriage comedy, from 
which the Virgin Queen, as the principal actor, had 
derived so much amusement, security and power. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 193 

The long negotiations had brought so much ad- 
vantage to England that the comedy could be 
dropped for all time. The once mighty Philip was 
broken and weak, Henry III was' enervated and in- 
capable, and Catherine de' Medici, so long the 
power behind the Throne, was dying. The great 
Protestant Queen was now firmly seated at the 
helm of government, whence, at the commencement 
of the marital drama, there was danger of her being 
hurledj by her own Catholic subjects in conjunction 
with the Catholic powers on the Continent. Her 
popularity was unbounded among all classes of her 
subjects, and her power and influence were pre- 
dominant in Europe. 



XIV 

THE CONDEMNATION OF THE QUEEN 
OF SCOTS 

Throckmorton's plot impressed every one with 
the great danger in which Queen Elizabeth stood, 
as long as Mary continued to live. Accordingly 
the Privy Council drew up a " Bond of Associa- 
tion." The subscribers to this promised that if 
the Queen was murdered they would not accept any 
one as her successor " by whom or for whom " the 
assassination would be perpetrated, but, on the 
contrary, would " prosecute such person to death." 
Even Mary herself desired to be among the eager 
signers of the document and no one of her partisans 
ventured to withhold their signature. But, as 
this bond meant nothing without the sanction of 
Parliament, it was made a statute in 1585, and en- 
acted that " any person, by or for whom re- 
bellion should be excited, or the Queen's' life 
attacked, might be tried by commission under the 
Great Seal and adjudged to capital punishment. 
And, if the Queen's life should be taken away, then 
any person, by or for whom such act was com- 
mitted, should be capitally punished, and the issue 
of such person cut off from the succession to the 

Crown." 

194 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 195 

The Queen of Scots, who had no intention of 
waiting for Elizabeth's natural death, regarded this 
new decree as a bill of exclusion, and consequently 
grew more reckless and desperate. She found out 
now that James had never purposed to share his 
sovereignty with her, as' she had fondly believed, 
but had actually urged the English Queen not to 
release her, and was enjoying an annual pension 
from her of £4^,000. 

For some time past, Walsingham had found a 
way of inspecting all of Mary's most secret corre- 
spondence, and he discovered in 1586 that she was 
actively encouraging Babington's plot to assassin- 
ate Queen Elizabeth. The new alliance which, 
after long negotiation, James^ had concluded in this 
year with the Queen of England, without making 
any mention of Mary's name, had highly offended 
the Scottish Queen, and driven her to desperate 
straits. 

Anthony Babington was a wealthy Catholic, who 
had been a page to Mary when she was a prisoner 
at Sheffield. He was induced to place himself at 
the head of this dastardly plot by the persuasions 
of Ballard, a Catholic priest, and Savage, a ruth- 
less desperado. This Savage — whose name seems 
singularly appropriate, — proposed to murder 
Queen Elizabeth with his own hands. But Bab- 
ington, who knew that the Queen was not of the 
sort to fall without a struggle, insisted that the 
deed ought not to be intrusted to a single man, 
but that five others should lend their united 



196 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

strength to assist Savage in assassinating the 
Maiden Monarch. Some of these conspirators, 
although they were known to be radical Catholics, 
were employed at Court by Queen Elizabeth, who 
still persisted in her reckless confidence. 

The project of these unprincipled desperadoes 
was warmly seconded by Mendoza, who was now 
Spanish Ambassador in Paris, and it was hoped 
that at the time of the assassination the Duke of 
Parma would land Spanish troops in England to 
aid Mary. Babington intended to release the 
Queen of Scots himself and received from her let- 
ters, approving of the murder, planning its details, 
and, above all, praising Babington's coterie of 
hired assassins and holding out to them the pros- 
pect of large rewards. 

Walsingham, through his spies', kept watch on 
every move of the conspirators, but allowed them 
to continue their plotting until he was assured by 
actual proof that the Queen of Scots was deeply 
entangled in their murderous schemes. 
V Elizabeth, although she preserved her usual in- 
trepid mien, did not like the dangerous situation 
in which she stood, with a band of desperate fellows 
at large, who had sworn to take her life, and she 
urged the immediate arrest of Ballard and Babing- 
ton. With sound good sense, she said, " it was her 
duty to put an end to the evil designs of her ene- 
mies, while it was" in her power to do so, lest by 
not doing it, she should seem to tempt God's mercy, 
rather than manifest her trust in His protection." 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 197 

But Walsingham prevailed on her to let the affair 
continue for a few days longer. 
^ But when he had intercepted the letters of Mary 
to the French and Spanish Ambassadors asking 
them to procure from their masters' men and money 
to aid her schemes, he thought it time to crush the 
conspiracy once for all. So he ordered the arrest 
of Ballard and Babington, and published accounts 
of the plots which aroused the people to a frenzy 
of alarm and indignation against all foreigners and 
Catholics. When Babington and several of his 
accomplices were brought under strong guard to 
the Tower, the people who followed them shouting 
with joy and singing psalms, testified their over- 
whelming delight at the Queen's escape from their 
snares. Bells were rung, great bonfires were kin- 
dled, and every one was filled with the most ardent 
devotion toward their Sovereign. 
X Mary was removed to F'otheringay, her papers 
seized and her secretaries, Nau and Curl, taken 
into custody. The Queen of Scots was thrown 
into a great rage at these acts, using very insulting 
language of Queen Elizabeth and demanding that 
her attendants protect her. Finally she was led 
away forcibly by Paulet, and the secretaries placed 
under arrest in Walsingham's' house. All their 
papers and memoranda were examined and deci- 
phered in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. She 
kept the King of Scotland informed of all the pro- 
ceedings through a man named Baillx. Nau and 
Curl confessed the genuineness of the letters and 



198 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

that they were indited by Mary. Babington also 
acknowledged the letters and ciphers which had 
passed between him and the Queen of Scots. 

On September 13, 1586, seven out of the four- 
teen conspirators were impeached. They con- 
fessed their guilt and the whole fourteen were put 
to death. The lives of the two secretaries were 
preserved. 

Many persons were dissatisfied with the com- 
posure and indifference which Queen Elizabeth 
manifested at this time. Walsingham complained 
that she would not do what was necessary for her 
safety and Secretary Davison desired that Bur- 
leigh should " advise her to be more circumspect of 
her person." 

Mary was now in the position provided for in 
the recent statute. But Queen Elizabeth was still 
unwilling to bring her to trial, and the urgency of 
all her ministers was necessary before she would 
give her consent. She did not want to be forced 
to execute Mary, but would have been content with 
a private investigation, if the Scottish Queen would 
admit her guilt and sue, in all humbleness, for 
mercy. 

But Mary would not humble herself and still 
loudly protested her innocence. A trial was there- 
fore a necessity. 

An English lawyer, Robert Beale, in a letter 
dated September 2i5, 1586, says : " Concerning 
the manner of dealing with her . . . she should be 
charged on two points, the actions with Norfolk, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 199 

and the conspiration now. For I take it that she 
is not yet discharged of the first, the favour which 
has been showed her being rather a merciful sus- 
pension of Her Majesty, than a pardon or acquit- 
tal. Besides, new proofs of her guilt have since 
then been discovered, which may be made use of. 
. . . She is not an independent Queen, but subject 
to the laws, and from these laws she will derive ad- 
vantage or suffer injury according to her behav- 
iour, nor has she, as a prisoner of war, any right to 
excite conspiracies." This was one of the many 
and varied opinions regarding the manner of pro- 
ceedings to be advanced against Mary. 

A special commission in accordance with the new 
statute was appointed consisting of forty-five men, 
Peers, Privy Councillors and Justices, who went to 
Fotheringay to try the Queen of Scots. On Octo- 
ber 6th Elizabeth sent a letter to her informing her 
that since she still protested her innocence of 
Babington's conspiracy and "... forasmuch as 
we find, by clear and most evident proof, that the 
contrary will be verified and maintained against 
you, we have found it therefore expedient to send 
unto you divers of our chief and most ancient No- 
blemen of this our Realm, together with certain of 
our Privy Council, as also some of our principal 
Judges, to charge you both with the privity and 
assent to that most horrible and unnatural at- 
tempt. . . . And therefore we do both require and 
advise you to give credit and make answer to that 
which the said honourable persons so authorized 



mo QUEEN ELIZABETH 

by us, shall from time to time, during their abode 
there, object or deliver unto you in our name, as 
if it were ours elf." 

On the next day. Queen Elizabeth sent Burleigh 
and Walsingham instructions as to the course of 
procedure. " If Mary," she directed, " wishes to 
negotiate more confidentially with some than with 
all, this' is to be permitted ; as many persons may 
be troublesome through curiosity, or attempt to 
force themselves in with bad intentions, they are 
to decide who are to be permitted to the examina- 
tions; as also whether in case she desires to hear 
her servants Nau, Curl and Parker personally, to 
testify those things' they have otherwise confessed 
against her, it shall be necessary to have them 
there, or to proceed otherwise without them." 

Mary was not, however, confronted with her 
servants. On October 12th, the Commissioners 
opened their court at Fotheringay. When Mary 
entered the hall and saw that a throne with a can- 
opy over it had been placed for Queen Elizabeth, 
though absent, and next to it a chair for herself, 
she became angry and declared she had a right to 
sit under a canopy '* since she had been married to 
a King of France." She refused to make any an- 
swer to the charges, saying " she was a Queen, that 
she recognized no superior upon earth, and would 
answer nobody but the Queen herself." To this 
speech she added some other angry expressions. 

When this was reported to Queen Elizabeth, she 
immediately wrote a letter to Mary without the 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 201 

superscription of sister or cousin, as was cus- 
tomary. This letter is as follows': — 

** You have, in various ways and manners, at- 
tempted to take my life, and to bring my Kingdom 
to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded 
so harshly against you, but have, on the contrary, 
protected and maintained you like myself. These 
treasons will be proved to you and all made manifest. 

Yet it is my will that you answer the Nobles and 
Peers of the Kingdom as if I were myself present. 
I therefore require, charge and command, that you 
make answer, for I have been well informed of your 
arrogance. 

Act plainly, without reserve, and you will sooner 
be able to obtain favour of me. 

Elizabeth.** 

The Queen of Scots still refused to answer the 
Lords, but did tell them that " she had tried by ev- 
ery means to gain her liberty, and would do so as 
long as she lived, but she had never plotted against 
the life of the Queen, or had any connection with 
Babington and the others for this' purpose, but 
merely for her liberation. If Elizabeth questioned 
her she would tell the truth." She admitted, how- 
ever, that she had plotted with Babington to bring 
a foreign army into England. 

After sitting two days at Fotheringay, the Com- 
missioners adjourned their Court to Westmin- 
ster, where the Queen of Scots was pronounced 
guilty on October 25th. The rights of her son to 



SOa QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the English succession were not affected by this 
decision. The conspirators persisted in their dep- 
ositions up to the moment of their death and these 
agreed fully with the voluntary confessions of Nau 
and Curl. These affidavits, together with the let- 
ters found, proved Mary's complicity in Babing- 
ton's plot, and that she had made the Pope and the 
King of Spain offers that would have ruined Eng- 
land and made it entirely dependent upon them. 
By her own confession, she had wished and encour- 
aged an insurrection in the Kingdom and the land- 
ing of foreign troops. 

', The verdict of the Commissioners was known at 
once, but was not proclaimed until Parliament was 
consulted on October 29th. Here all the proofs 
were gone over again. An address was presented 
to Queen Elizabeth, petitioning her to consent to 
Mary's execution. The Speaker rehearsed the of- 
fences of the Scottish Queen and cited instances 
of the putting to death of an anointed Sovereign. 
He concluded his speech by assuring her that 
" her compliance with the petition would be most 
acceptable to God, and that her people expected 
nothing less of her." She gave a lengthy and am- 
biguous' reply speaking of her great love for her 
people, her extreme reluctance to allow her kins- 
woman to be executed, in spite of the grave danger 
to which her own life was continually exposed 
through Mary's plots, and urged them to find some 
other expedient, besides the death of the Scottish 
Queen for preserving peace in the Kingdom. The 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 203 

Parliament, obeying her commands, again consid- 
ered the aifair, but, finding no other possible ex- 
pedient, renewed their solicitation, arguments 
and earnest entreaties, declaring that " the 
Queen's safety could no way be secured as long as 
the Queen of Scots lived," and that " mercy to 
her, was cruelty to them, her subjects and chil- 
dren." They further affirmed that it was injus- 
tice to deny the execution of the law to an individ- 
ual, and far more so to the whole body of the people 
who were unanimously beseeching her for this proof 
of " her parental care and tenderness." Yet 
Queen Eilzabeth hesitated to give her consent. In 
reply she complained of the difficult situation she 
was in, how uneasy their importunities rendered 
her, reiterated her professions' of affection for her 
subjects, and then dismissed the parliamentary 
committee in great doubts as to what her final 
decision would be. 

X Elizabeth's reluctance to put the Queen of Scots 
to death seems most genuine. She was neither 
vindictive nor cruel, and cherished no enmity 
against her foes. For fifteen years, at great risk 
to her own life, she, and she alone, had stood be- 
tween Mary and the scaffold. She was, moreover, 
noted for her clemency; so' far in her long reign 
only two Nobles had been executed, although sev- 
eral had amply deserved it. She was singularly 
careless of her personal safety, appearing to take 
pride in employing about her person those whose 
intentions there was reason to suspect. She had, 



204 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

too, a natural disinclination to shed the blood of an 
anointed Queen — a dangerous precedent — and 
her own kinswoman at that. Furthermore, she 
dreaded the undeserved censure that she clearly 
foresaw would be visited upon her for sanctioning 
what was demanded of her by her ministers and the 
majority of her subjects. Even now she would 
have preserved Mary's life and continued a target 
for assassination, as she had been ever since the 
Scottish Queen entered her Realm, without waiting 
for her permission, had she not been fully convinced 
that to do so would be an act of supreme and 
culpable folly. " I swear by the living God," she 
solemnly affirmed to the Scottish Ambassador, Sir 
William Keith, " that I would give one of my own 
arms to be cut off so that any means could be found 
for us both to live in assurance." But the re- 
moval of the Royal intrigante had become a State 
necessity, not only for the preservation of Eliza- 
beth's life, but for the preservation of the Kingdom 
itself. It was impossible to spare longer the very 
fountain head of treason. 

A warrant for the execution was drawn up after 
Parliament had adjourned, and all through De- 
cember and January Queen Elizabeth's ministers 
were ceaselessly urging her to sign it. Still she 
delayed, she would and she would not allow justice 
to take its course. In the meantime the French 
and Scottish Ambassadors were protesting against 
the execution. James made some blustering, but 
half-hearted attempts to save his mother, but he 



QUEEN ELIZABETH a05 

had learned of a plan of hers for kidnapping and 
disinheriting him because of his rigid Protestant- 
ism, and so he was forced to regard her as an en- 
emy. 

V Finally on February, Queen Elizabeth was pre- 
vailed upon to sign the warrant in the presence of 
Davison, whom she had lately made co-secretary 
with Walsingham, and ordered him to have it 
sealed. What other directions she may have given 
him will always remain shrouded in doubt, for the 
four written statements of Davison and his answers 
at his trial differ in important details from one an- 
other, as well as from the Queen's account. Eliza- 
beth evidently intended the execution to take place, 
but was reluctant to give the necessary definite or- 
ders for carrying it out. Davison admits that she 
managed to evade this responsibility, " For in the 
first place she had told me she would hear no more 
of the matter till it was over ; she had done what the 
law and reason required of her . . . only she 
thought that it might have received a better form, 
because this threw the whole burden upon herself." 
Here Davison, lacking positive orders, and fear- 
ing that the responsibility might be shifted upon his 
shoulders, laid the matter before Hatton and Bur- 
leigh, although the Queen had commanded strict 
secrecy, " because if it became known prematurely, 
her danger might be the greater." Davison's ap- 
prehensions had been roused by the directions 
Queen Elizabeth had sent him on the morning 
after she had signed the warrant. She bade him 



206 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

not to have the seal affixed until she had spoken 
with him. When he informed her that it was al- 
ready done, she said, " Why such haste ? " 

Burleigh assembled in his own room ten of the 
Privy Councillors: the Earls of Leicester and 
Derby, Lords Hunsdon, Cobham, and Howard of 
Effingham, Hatton, Walsingham, Knollys, and 
Davison. He told them Davison's account of what 
had happened at the two interviews with the 
Queen. They all agreed that she had done as 
much as honour, law, and reason could expect, and 
that they would, and ought to, take the remaining 
responsibility upon themselves without informing 
her. Accordingly a letter was written to the Earls 
of Shrewsbury and Kent directing them to carry 
out the execution. All ten signed this letter and 
despatched it along with the warrant. 

When the news of the execution arrived on 
February 9th, Burleigh and the other Councillors 
decided not to inform Queen Elizabeth suddenly, 
but gradually to prepare her for it. The whole 
day passed and not one of the Council ventured 
to tell her what had happened at Fotheringay. In 
the evening as the news spread, people seemed de- 
lirious with joy; bells were rung and bonfires kin- 
dled all over London and vicinity. 

Queen Elizabeth asked " why the bells rang out 
so merrily ? " When she was told the cause she 
remained a while in silence. Says Camden, " As 
soon as the report of the death of the Queen of 
Scots was brought to Queen Elizabeth, she heard 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 207 

it with great indignation ; her countenance altered ; 
her speech faltered and failed her, and through 
excessive sorrow she stood in a manner astonished, 
insomuch that she gave herself over to passionate 
grief, putting herself into a mourning habit and 
shedding abundance of tears. Her Council she 
sharply rebuked, and commanded them out of her 
sight." 

x"Ehzabeth sorroweth not a Httle, and greatly 
rebuketh the popular rejoicings, by banquetings 
and bonfires made throughout her Realm, for that 
case, and heartily wisheth that the occasion never 
had been given,'^ says a contemporary writer. 
" The only cause for the great grief that Her 
Majesty hath conceived ... is to think that she, 
of all Christian Princes, should be made the first 
author of so strange a precedent in justice, and 
so far discrepant and contrary to her nature, to 
her sex, to the manner of her life, who had always 
professed peace, amity, mercy and indulgence to 
all offenders, even her greatest enemies, so now to 
be driven, after the process of a long and glorious 
reign, to imbrue her hands in the blood of a Queen, 
a kinswoman, a prisoner of so many years' pre- 
serving, of which to lose all the thanks and glory 
in a day must needs be very grievous. Besides, 
Her Majesty seeking all the days of her life to get 
good renown by clemency and lenity, to make her- 
self in the end famous by an action of so apparent 
cruelty and by so dolourous a sentence as no heart 
that was not made of marble or flint or not suffi- 



208 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

ciently informed of the said lady's evil merits, but 
might worthily seem to mourn and take to ruth." 

Queen Elizabeth was naturally infuriated that 
ten of her Council had dared to take matters into 
their own hands and act independently of her com- 
mands. She was all the more angry because she 
realized that they had joined together in self- 
defense. For a time she forbade Burleigh to enter 
her presense and did not receive him into favour 
again until he had written the most abject letters, 
entreating her forgiveness. Walsingham, too, 
came in for a large share of her anger and com- 
plained to Leicester " behind my back Her Maj- 
esty giveth out very hard speeches of myself, 
which I the easier credit, for that I find in deal- 
ing with her I am nothing gracious ; and if Her 
Majesty could be otherwise served, I should not be 
used. Her Majesty doth wholly bend herself to 
devise some further means to disgrace her poor 
Council that subscribed, and in respect thereof she 
neglecteth all other causes." 

The heaviest burden of blame fell upon the luck- 
less Davison for revealing to the Council what he 
had been commanded to keep secret, and for giving 
up to them the warrant which had been entrusted 
to his special care. For these offences, he was 
stripped of his offices, tried before a special com- 
mission, sentenced to pay a heavy fine, and im- 
prisoned for a time in the Tower. 

About this time Burleigh writes": "Her Maj- 
esty was altogether ignorant of the deed (the exe- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 209 

cution of Mary) and not privy thereto until a 
reasonable time after the same was done. Besides 
her royal solemnly given word that she is ignorant 
of this transaction, there are many proofs which 
testify her dislike to the measure. . . . Now for 
the time and manner of the fact done she was also 
ignorant, and so all of her Council that had any 
knowledge thereof did afterwards confess, that 
though they were abused by one of the Council, 
being her secretary, whose office was in all affairs 
to deliver unto their knowledge Her Majesty's lik- 
ing and misliking, yet in very truth no one of them 
was able to show any other proof of knowledge of 
her liking but the report colourably uttered by 
the said secretary. . . . She fell into such grief 
of mind, and that accompanied with vehement un- 
feigned weeping, as her health was greatly im- 
paired. And then she charged all her Councillors 
most bitterly that were privy thereto; and though 
they did affirm that they thought that she assented, 
as they were informed only by the secretary, yet 
she furtherwise commanded the secretary to the 
Tower, who confessed his abuse in the report, hav- 
ing no such declaration to him made of Her Maj- 
esty's assent; and commanded the greater part 
of her principal Councillors to places of restraint, 
banishing a great part of them from her, notwith- 
standing the great need she had of their presence 
and service all the time; a matter seen in her 
Court, universally misliked to see her so greatly 
grieved and offended for a matter that was in jus- 



210 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

tice and policy most necessary. . . . She called to 
her five of her judges and men learned in law, and 
directed them to use all means possible to examine 
her secretary of the grounds of his actions, and 
how many were privy of his abuse, and also the 
most part of her Privy Councillors; and to that 
end gave a like commission to a number of Noble- 
men of the Realm, though not Privy Councillors, 
and to the two Archbishops, and to all the chief 
judges of the Realm, who did very exactly proceed 
against the secretary, upon his own confession, in 
public place of judgment; and did likewise ex- 
amine the rest of the Council upon sundry inter- 
rogations, tending to burden them as offenders, 
and finding no proof against them of anything 
material, but of their credulity to the secretary, 
the judges of the commission only proceeded 
against the secretary for his imprisonment in the 
Tower, and a fine of 1000 marks for his contempt 
against Her Majesty, the process of which sen- 
tence is' to be publicly seen in the Court of Chan- 
cery." 

Davison's principal defense consisted in his 
statement that he believed the danger to Her Maj- 
esty's person was so imminent by her allowing 
Mary to live that " he was provoked in his con- 
science to procure justice to be done without Her 
Majesty's consent or knowledge." The Earl of 
Sussex spoke in Davison's favour to Queen Eliza- 
beth and told her how patiently he bore his punish- 
ment. She seemed affected at hearing this, 



J 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 211 

praised his former conduct, but would make no 
promises' to restore him to favour. On another 
occasion she said to Burleigh, " I can do nothing 
for Davison without exciting suspicion that he is 
innocent." 

James was, at first, very angry at hearing of his 
mother's execution, but he was soon appeased, for 
his own interests' drew him close to the English 
Queen and his subjects gave him but little sym- 
pathy. But Queen Elizabeth, apprehensive lest a 
coalition should be formed against her by Spain, 
Scotland, and France for the invasion of England, 
sought to pacify their respective Courts by writing 
them letters in which she vehemently protested her 
grief and indignation at the execution of the 
Queen of Scots. The relations of Mary, especially 
the Duke of Guise, spoke so violently against Queen 
Elizabeth that Unton, the English Ambassador at 
Paris, challenged him three times to a duel. The 
Duke, however, was more active with his tongue 
than with his sword and did not care to fight for 
his opinions. 

Chateauneuf, the French Ambassador, in a re- 
port to Henry III writes : " I did not wish to 
speak of the Queen of Scotland; but Queen Eliza- 
beth seized my hand, and led me into a corner of 
the apartment, and said, ' Since I have seen you, I 
have met with the greatest vexation and the 
greatest misfortune that has happened to me in 
the whole course of my life; I mean the death of 
my cousin.' She swore by God, and with many 



^n QUEEN ELIZABETH 

oaths that she was innocent of it. She said the 
sentence had indeed been signed by her, but only 
to quiet her subjects', and on the same ground she 
had withstood the intercession of the French and 
Scottish Ambassadors. ' But in truth,' she went 
on, ' I never intended that she should be executed ; 
only if a foreign army had been landed in England, 
or an insurrection had broken out in favour of 
Mary, in such case, I confess I might perhaps have 
suffered her to die, but never in any other case. 
My Councillors, among others four who are now in 
my presence, have played me a trick, whereof I 
cannot quiet myself. As true as God lives, if they 
had not served me so long, if they had not done 
it in the persuasion that it would tend to the wel- 
fare of their country and their Queen, I would have 
had their heads cut off! Do not think that I am 
so malevolent as to throw the blame on an insignifi- 
cant secretary if it were not so, but this death for 
many reasons, will be a weight upon my mind as' 
long as I live.' " 
' On July 3rd, occurred at Peterborough the 
solemn obsequies of Mary, Queen of Scots, with 
many Lords, Ladies and clergymen in attendance. 
The Countess of Bedford acted as Queen Eliza- 
beth's proxy, and officiated as chief mourner. The 
body of Queen Mary was interred on the right 
side of the choir, opposite the tomb of Katherine of 
Aragon. Prior to the funeral, the secretaries", Nau 
and Curl, were set at liberty and all their pos- 
sessions restored to them, after they had signed 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 213 

a declaration before the Council that their testi- 
mony was true " and given without force, violence 
or bribe." 

Thomas Wright says, in referring to the tragedy 
of the ill-fated Queen of Scots : " There is per- 
haps in all history no greater moral lesson than 
that furnished by these two Queens, — the one. 
ascending the Throne with the good-will of her own 
subjects, and supported by the Pope and the most 
powerful nations in Europe, lost her Crown by her 
own crimes and vices, threw disgrace on the cause 
she was expected to have made victorious, dragged 
on a large portion of her life in a prison and ended 
it on a scaffold; while the other, surrounded on 
every side by the bitterest enemies, with none but 
God and her own comparatively weak resources to 
depend upon, by her virtue and prudence, raised 
her Kingdom toi a high state of glory, made her 
subjects rich and happy, and lived to see all the 
schemes of her enemies broken." 

Note. — The story, sometimes repeated, that Queen 
Elizabeth urged Paulet and Drury to execute Mary 
privately and that they refused, rests solely on the 
more than doubtful evidence of two letters — and 
copies at that — alleged to have passed between the 
secretaries, Walsingham and Davison, and Paulet. 
There seems no doubt that letters had passed relative 
to putting Mary to death, but as the real letters have 
never been found it is not possible to tell what man- 
ner of execution was urged. The charge that it was 
a private murder is based only on two alleged copies 



ai4 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

of the original letters^ which had probably been de- 
stroyed. These copies did not appear until 1722, 
when they were brought forward by Dr. George 
Mackenzie, a fiery partisan of Mary. He says that 
a copy of them was found among Paulet's papers and 
sent to him. Two years later they were printed by 
an Oxford Jacobite, and he too states that he got them 
from a copy sent him by a friend who copied them 
in 1717 from a letter-book belonging to Paulet. Then 
there is also a MS. copy of these oft-copied letters in 
the Harleian library, and this is full of erasements 
and corrections. This letter-book of Paulet's is miss- 
ing as well as the originals of these two letters. 
These copies cleverly fit in with Davison's statement, 
and seem to have been constructed in 1717 for the 
very purpose of putting a bad meaning on the state- 
ment. (See Beesly's Queen Elizabeth.) 



XV 

" THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA " 

The execution of the Queen of Scots brought 
on the long-threatened and inevitable war with 
Spain. For thirty years Queen Elizabeth had 
dealt her great enemy, Philip of Spain, repeated 
and covert attacks, just enough to cripple his 
power, without actually rousing him to war. If 
the Queen had allowed herself to be guided by the 
ablest of her ministers, she would have entered 
upon this struggle twenty-five years' earlier, at a 
time when England was unarmed, disunited and 
burdened with the debts of three preceding reigns, 
but, with shrewd sagacity and dexterous manage- 
ment, she firmly and successfully staved off the 
final contest until England had reached a summit 
of prosperity and strength never before attained 
to. During all these years of expectation, the 
English Queen had been steadily bettering the con- 
dition of the country, paying off the debts of her 
predecessors, amassing a modest surplus, enroll- 
ing and training a large militia and creating a 
navy, which, though it would be considered small 
in these days, aroused the admiration of her sub- 
jects. Henry VIII was the only Sovereign who 
215 



216 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

had any idea of maintaining a navy, but, under 
Edward and Mary, this, like everything else, went 
to ruin. So the royal navy was fairly created by 
Elizabeth, and proved adequate for all her pur- 
poses. These ships, which were under the personal 
supervision of the Queen, were kept in excellent 
trim and were ready for active service at short 
notice. The Queen, though economical in this, as 
in other respects, raised the wages of the officers 
and sailors and saw that everything was kept in 
readiness for action. At the time of the Armada, 
however, some terrified persons seemed to fear that 
there was undue economy exercised in regard to 
the navy. 

While Queen Elizabeth was arming and strength- 
ening England, she was at the same time arousing 
the ire of Philip by the encouragement she gave 
to his Netherlands rebels and her tacit consent to 
Drake and other rovers of the sea, when they at- 
tacked Spanish vessels and carried off their treas- 
ure. In addition to these other incentives, Philip 
was urged on by the Pope to depose the excom- 
municated Queen of England, and he would have 
declared war long before he did, had it not been 
for the condition of his decreasing treasury, his 
disputes with France, and the rebellion in the 
Netherlands. But now the Scottish Queen had 
bequeathed to him her claim to the English Throne 
and urged him, with her last message, to make 
the threatened invasion, and so the vessels and 
troops which were collected in the Spanish ports, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 217 

presumably to send against the Netherlands, were 
now openly directed toward England. 

vPhilip's determination immediately to invade 
England was intensified by an exploit of Sir 
Francis Drake, who sailed boldly into Cadiz har- 
bour and destroyed over eighty of Philip's vessels. 
He then sailed to the coast of Portugal and defied 
the Spanish Admiral to come out and engage in 
a naval battle with him, and finally returned home 
laden with spoils. These piratical ventures of 
Drake and other daring seamen had long been 
winked at by the Queen and her ministers. But 
Philip, thinking that the preparations for his 
gigantic armament were now sufficiently in 
progress to intimidate the Maiden Majesty of 
England, sent her by his Ambassador insulting 
conditions of peace in the form of a Latin tetras- 
tic. The following English rendering has been 
given :* 

*' Belgic rebels aid no more, 
Treasures seized by Drake restore; 
And whate'er thy sire o'erthrew, 
In the Papal Church renew.'* 

But little did Philip know the fearless spirit of 
the " lioness of the Tudors." 

" Ad Graecas, bone rex, fient mandata Kalen- 
das," was the contemptuous message she sent back. 
The popular translation of it is : 

* Miss Strickland's Queen Elizabeth. 



ai8 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

** Mighty king, lo, this thy will 
At latter Lammas we'll fulfil." 

The literal version is, " Good king, your com- 
mand shall be fulfilled at the Greek Kalends." 
Now as the Greeks never reckoned by Kalends, 
Queen Elizabeth's bold and witty reply could only 
be taken as a veritable challenge, and so Philip 
took it. 

The Pope, Sixtus V, in the hope of depriving 
the Queen of the allegiance of her Catholic sub- 
jects, reiterated the edict of excommunication 
passed upon her by his predecessors and pro- 
claimed that Papal Europe should start a crusade 
against the intrepid champion of Protestantism. 
Queen Elizabeth was' urged to avert a probable 
Catholic revolt by massacring the leading men of 
that belief throughout the Kingdom. But she 
turned with horror from the proposition, refusing, 
too, to confine a large number of them as was also 
suggested. Her clemency and wisdom were re- 
warded by the zeal with which the Catholics rallied 
to her support. 

While warlike preparations were being made on 
both sides, Elizabeth continued her long negotia- 
tions with Spain in regard to the Netherlands. 
She had no intention of betraying her Dutch allies' 
to Philip, but she was willing to make peace, if 
he would grant to the Protestants of the Nether- 
lands the same toleration that she allowed her own 
Catholics. They were not to be interrogated 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 219 

about their religion, but there was to be no public 
worship or converting. The old constitution was 
to be revived, which would necessitate the with- 
drawal of the foreign troops. The Queen sin- 
cerely wished the Dutch Provinces to return to 
their allegiance, if she could persuade or force 
Philip to grant them the liberties which they had 
formerly enjoyed. It is greatly to Elizabeth's 
credit that she never sought to involve her sub- 
jects in the expenses of needless war, but always 
desired peace when it did not mean the surrender- 
ing of any important interest. The English 
honoured her now for her persevering attempts at 
reconciliation with their old ally. They had good 
reason to be confident that she would sacrifice no 
important advantage and would strike back, as she 
always had, if hostile designs were intended. As 
Philip was not wise enough to grant the conces- 
sions she asked for, but instead began to show him- 
self openly aggressive, she went on preparing for 
war against him. Nevertheless, it was painful for 
Queen Elizabeth to see the money that she had 
carefully accumulated by strict economy swal- 
lowed up in the ceaseless vortex of military expendi- 
ture, and she doled out with a reluctant hand an 
amount that was barely adequate in some instances. 
Every day fresh rumours reached London of 
the increase of Philip's colossal naval force, which 
the Spaniards had already confidently denomi- 
nated the " Invincible Armada." But Queen 
Elizabeth, undismayed by that power by which all 



220 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the nations of Europe feared she must be over- 
whelmed, coolly continued her spirited plans for 
defense. Her forces indeed seemed very inade- 
quate to withstand so mighty an enemy, whose 
whole vast Empire had now become a recruiting 
ground for that huge armament which was to sweep 
the last of the Tudors from her Throne. The 
highest nobilitj' of Spain and Italy hastened to 
join Philip's army under the Duke of Parma, a 
consummate general. Troops were levied from all 
quarters, Spain, Italy, Germany, Flanders, the 
Netherlands and other places. 

The Protestants of Europe regarded this in- 
vasion as the crisis which would decide the fate of 
their religion, and, though their distance prevented 
them from joining forces with the warlike Eng- 
lish Queen, they watched with fear and admiration 
the undaunted mien with which she faced the 
gigantic armament now advancing upon the island 
Kingdom. 

' Queen Elizabeth appointed the Earl of Leicester 
Lieutenant General of the land forces stationed 
at Tilbury to protect London, Lord Hundson she 
placed in command of her Body Guard, but she 
herself was nominal general of both armies. There 
was widespread enthusiasm and courage among 
her subjects from the nobility down. The Queen 
began to fit out the fleet for war November 1, 1587, 
but set about it so vigourously that the ships were 
ready December 28, 1588, under the able com- 
mand of Lord Howard of Effingham, whom she 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 221 

made Lord High Admiral of England ; Sir Francis 
Drake was her Vice-Admiral. On land 20,000 
men were stationed along the southern coasts. 
The rojal Body-Guard consisted of 34,000 foot 
and 2000 horse. Trained bands were posted all 
along the sea-counties to meet in arms at signals' 
and to defend the coasts. In case the Spaniards 
should succeed in landing, they were to devastate 
that part of the country, leaving no forage for 
the enemy. 

The Queen wrote letters to the most influential 
of her subjects near the sea-coast, saying that she 
expected on that extraordinary occasion a larger 
number of foot and horse, and that these must be 
certified to the Privy Council. The Lords of the 
Council, at Her Majesty's request, wrote to the 
nobihty, bidding them provide themselves, their 
servants, and dependents with armour and horses. 
Queen Elizabeth also directed a letter to Wal- 
singham, Keeper of the Privy Seal, saying that 
" for the better understanding of the intended in- 
vasion of this Realm upon the great preparations 
made by the King of Spain, both by sea and land, 
the last year, the same having been such as the like 
was never prepared yet any time against this 
Realm," she ordered him to tell the Lieutenants of 
each county that she required " from her loving 
subjects an extraordinary aid, by way of a loan, 
for the defense of the country." 

, London willingly furnished SO ships, with 10,000 
well-armed and trained men; 30,000 more men 



%%% QUEEN ELIZABETH 

acted as a reserve. All ranks of people eagerly 
volunteered, Catholics as well as Protestants. 

The army of defense was stationed at Tilbury, 
the ground having previously been surveyed and 
trenches dug. Gravesend was likewise fortified. 
All the shires and cities with their trained soldiers 
awaited hourly the pleasure of their Warrior 
Queen. When the soldiers were commanded to set 
forth for the rendezvous at Tilbury, they marched 
cheerfully, bravely, and full of eagerness to at- 
tack the Spaniards. In the warlike enthusiasm 
of the moment. Queen Elizabeth was led into the 
extraordinary act of bestowing knighthood on a 
woman, Mary, the wife of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley 
of Vale Royal, who had expressed her martial 
aspirations in loyal and valiant terms at that time. 

On May 29th, 1588, the " Invincible Armada " 
sailed proudly forth from the Bay of Lisbon, con- 
fident of victory. Off Cape Finisterre a storm 
from the west did much damage to the tall, un- 
wieldly galleons, and compelled their inexperienced 
commander, the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, to with- 
draw into the harbour of Corunna to repair his 
shattered fleet. This catastrophe was reported 
in England as the complete destruction of the 
armament. Queen Elizabeth, yielding to her love 
of economy, ordered Lord Admiral Howard to dis- 
mantle at once four of her largest ships of war. 
But Lord Howard was not so sanguine of victory 
as his Sovereign, so he generously promised to de- 
fray the expenses with his own purse, and retained 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 2^3 

the vessels. On July 19th, after long and anxious 
watching, Howard was informed that the Armada 
was rounding Lizard Point, so he at once left the 
harbour, and hastened forth to meet it on the high 
seas. " The next day," writes Camden, " the Eng- 
lish descried the Spanish ships, with lofty turrets, 
like Castles, in front like a half-moon, the wings 
thereof spreading out about the length of seven 
miles, sailing very slowly, though with full sails, 
the winds being, as it were, tired with carrying 
them, and the ocean groaning with the weight of 
them." While Howard, Drake, Hawkins, and Fro- 
bisher gallantly and stoutly attacked the pon- 
derous squadron, England's fearless Queen, by her 
courageous bearing, inspired her subjects with 
intense enthusiasm and eager desire to fight. 

Queen Elizabeth's ardent wish was to proceed 
in person to the coast in order to be the first to 
repel the invaders, in case they should effect a land- 
ing. She was finally persuaded from this by the 
entreaties of her Council and took up her residence 
at Havering Bower, centrally located between the 
van and the rear of her army, and at a convenient 
distance from London. 

^ On July SO, 1588, the massive galleons came 
sweeping proudly up the Channel where they were 
attacked in the rear by the English ships coming 
out from their harbours. The Spaniards had the 
advantage in number, size, and equipment, but the 
English vessels though smaller, were swifter and 
more easily managed than the floating castles of 



2M QUEEN ELIZABETH 

King Philip. The Queen's ships, of which there 
were 34, did almost all the work. During the 
Channel fight there was no unfavourable weather 
or tempestuous wind. 

The grandest moment of Queen Elizabeth's life 
has been held to be that day on which she rode, 
in martial array, to visit her loyal camp at Til- 
bury, while her gallant sailors were boldly assail- 
ing the Spaniards on the high seas. Between the 
fort and the camp. Sir Roger Williams at the 
head of 2000 horse, met Her Majesty. He divided 
his troops into two divisions, one to go before her 
and the other behind to guard her person, and 
then, together with 2000 foot soldiers, conducted 
her to a house about three miles from the camp, 
where she was to pass the night. 
' On the next morning, the Maiden Monarch, clad 
in the grim accoutrements of war, with a mar- 
shal's staff in her hand, and mounted upon a hand- 
some charger, rode majestically before the camp, 
and presented herself to the army assembled there 
to receive her. She had forbidden any of her ret- 
inue to follow her, and was attended only by the 
Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Ormond, who 
bore the Sword of State before her. She rode 
bareheaded and was followed by a page, carrying 
her white-plumed helmet. Upon her breast she 
wore a steel corselet, and beneath it descended an 
enormous farthingale. As' the Warrior Queen, 
like Boadicea of old, rode between the lines, with 
smiling and intrepid countenance, reining in her 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 225 

spirited charger with majestic grace, she was re- 
ceived with loud acclamations and thunders of 
applause. " Her presence and princely encour- 
agement, Bellona-like," writes Camden, " infused 
a second spirit of love, loyalty, and resolution into 
every soldier in her army, who, being as it were, 
ravished with their Sovereign's sight, that as well 
commanders as common soldiers quite forgot the 
fickleness of fortune and the chance of war, and 
prayed the Spaniards might land quickly." 

As soon as Queen Elizabeth could make herself 
heard above the thunderous acclamations, she ad- 
dressed her troops in the following royal and cour- 
ageous speech : " My loving people, — we have 
been persuaded by some that are careful of our 
safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to 
aimed multitudes for fear of treachery ; but I do 
assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my 
faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I 
have always so behaved myself that under God I 
have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard 
in the loyal hearts and good- will of my sub j ects ; 
and, therefore, I am come amongst you as you see 
at this time, not for my recreation and disport, 
but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the 
battle, to live or die amongst you all — to lay down 
ior my God and for my Kingdoms and for my 
people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. 
I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; 
but I have the heart and stomach of a King — 
and a King of England, too, and think foul scorn 



2m QUEEN ELIZABETH 

that Parma, or Spain, or any Prince of Europe, 
should dare to invade the borders of my Realm; 
to which rather than any dishonour should grow 
by me, I myself will take up arms — I myself will 
be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one 
of your virtues in the field. I know already, for 
your forwardness, you have deserved rewards and 
crowns, and we do assure you, on the word of a 
Prince, they shall be duly paid you. For the 
meantime, my Lieut enant-General shall be in my 
stead, than whom never Prince commanded a more 
noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your 
obedience to my general, by your concord in the 
camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly 
have a famous victory over the enemies of my 
God, of my Kingdoms, and of my people." 

As Queen Elizabeth finished this inspiring ad- 
dress, the applause and acclamations grew deafen- 
ing, and the soldiers responded by unanimously 
exclaiming, " Is it possible that any Englishman 
can abandon such a glorious cause, or refuse to 
lay down his life in defense of this heroic Prin- 
cess ? " Among that whole armed multitude there 
seemed not one whose heart did not glow with 
fervent devotion to his dauntless Queen and a firm 
determination to die, if need be, for her sake, 
when he saw her there in the midst, her woman's 
breast sheathed in the warrior's steel and heard 
her stirring speech. In a letter of Leicester's 
written about this time, he says, " The Queen so 
inflamed the hearts of her good subjects as I think 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 227 

the weakest person amongst them is able to match 
the proudest Spaniard that dares land in Eng- 
land." Lord Burleigh in a letter to Leicester 
writes : " She is very careful, as a good natural 
Prince, although in such a case as this, somewhat 
too scrupulous, to have her people adventured in 
fights " — yet she fearlessly exposes herself at the 
head of her troops, he complains. 

Cheering reports were sent in of Her Majesty's 
fleet, but there were grave apprehensions that the 
Duke of Parma with the Flemish armament and 
navy was planning to land in England. How- 
ever, in a rigourous contest in the narrowest part 
of the Channel between Calais and Dover, a num- 
ber of the heavy Spanish vessels were sunk or 
driven ashore on the coasts of France and Flan- 
ders, and the news of Parma's coming was found 
to be false. The Armada then attempted to seek 
a haven at Calais, but the wind had risen to such 
a gale that they could not anchor there nor in 
the harbours of Flanders. A few days later, the 
" Invincible Armada," broken, scattered, and its 
best commanders' lost, was being driven far to the 
north by the tempestuous wind behind it. One 
part of the English fleet returned to the Channel to 
guard it from other attacks, while another part 
under Lord Howard pursued the shattered pride 
of Spain as far as was consistent with safety and 
the want of ammunition, for the heavy drains made 
on the treasury by the expenses of war were dis- 
tressing to Queen Elizabeth, and she had doled out 



£^ QUEEN ELIZABETH 

but a limited supply of military stores to her gal- 
lant sailors. In the wild storm that was raging, 
the Spanish fleet, reduced from 150 ships to 120', 
attempted to reach Spain by a desperate voyage 
around the north of Scotland and Ireland, where 
many of the towering galleons were dashed to 
pieces on the reefs. Finally, one-third of that vast 
fleet which had set sail so confidently, and consider- 
ably less than one-third of its men, reached home 
again. The losses of the English were extraordi- 
narily small; in the first seven days of the Chan- 
nel fight, they lost hardly a man ; in the last battle 
they lost about 60 men and one ship, and that 
not one of the Queen's. Of all the Nobles who 
served in the fleet, it is not recorded that one of 
them was even wounded. For the next ten years 
the war with Spain was continued, but the English 
were almost invariably successful and the military 
prestige of Spain was lessened. 
\Upon the Queen's return from Tilbury, she was 
met at her landing at Westminster by great crowds 
of Noblemen and gentlemen who accompanied her 
to St. James Palace, and, for many days after, 
entertained her with martial pageants, tourna- 
ments, and tilts. The whole Kingdom was in a 
delirium of joy and gratitude. Special services 
were held in all the churches in honour of the 
victory. November 17th was enthusiastically 
celebrated, both because of the victory and, espe- 
cially, because it was the anniversary of Her Maj- 
esty's accession. Queen Elizabeth was to have 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 229 

been present at the celebration, but for some reason 
was unable to attend. 

\ Medals were struck off and money was coined 
In commemoration of the defeat of the " Invinci- 
ble," some with the picture of a fleet flying under 
full sail, with the inscription, " Venit, vidit, 
fugit — It came, it saw, it fled." Others in 
special compliment to the Virgin Queen, bore the 
picture of the English ships scattering the Spanish 
fleet, with this motto, " Dux femina facti — a 
woman the leader of the enterprise." Scholars at 
home and abroad commemorated the victory of 
England's Maiden Queen in triumphal poems 
written in all languages. James Aske wrote an 
especially long poem in honour of the Queen's 
victories over all her enemies from the beginning 
of her reign. It is entitled " Elizabetha Tri- 
umphans," and a part of it runs : 

" So dear a darling is Elizabeth, 
Renowned Queen of this renowned land, 
Renowned land, because a fruitful soil: 
Renowned land through people of the same, 
And thrice renowned by this her Virgin Queen, 
A Maiden Queen, and yet of courage stout. 
Through wisdom rare, for learning passing all." 

, Queen Elizabeth bestowed a pension on Lord 
Admiral Howard, her brave kinsman, and told him 
that " she considered him and his officers as per- 
sons born for the preservation of their country." 
The other commanders and captains she greeted 



230 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

kindly by name whenever she saw them, telling 
them that they were men who " deserved praise 
from her and the country." The soldiers and sea- 
men who were wounded or poor she relieved with 
large pensions. 

On Sunday, November S4th, Queen Elizabeth 
went in state to St. Paul's to celebrate the national 
triumph. She was attended by the members of the 
Privy Council, a great number of Lords, spiritual 
and temporal, the French Ambassador, heralds and 
trumpeters, all mounted on horseback. Her Maj- 
esty rode in a " chariot-throne," with a rich canopy 
overhead, on top of which was the crown imperial, 
and on two pillars in front were a lion and a dragon, 
supporting the arms of England. The splendid 
chariot was drawn by two white horses, and sur- 
rounded by footmen and pensioners ; behind it rode 
the Earl of Essex, the Master of the Horse, leading 
the Queen's palfrey of State, richly caparisoned; 
after him rode a great number of ladies of honour 
and on each side of them walked the Guard, in 
magnificent coats, carrying halberds. 
: When the Queen reached Temple Bar, an officer 
of the Privy Chamber gave her " a jewel contain- 
ing a crapon or toadstone set in gold." She ac- 
cepted this very graciously, and said it was the 
first gift she had received that day. A little later, 
she was presented with a book, called " The Light 
of Britain." At Temple Bar, the Mayor and 
Aldermen, in their scarlet robes, received and wel- 
comed her to the city. The Mayor then mounted 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 231 

his horse and rode before her, bearing the mace. 
The guards of the city in their uniforms' stood 
upon elevated platforms covered with blue cloth, 
and saluted the Queen all the way to St. 
Paul's. 

^Between twelve and one o'clock Queen Elizabeth 
descended from her chariot at the great west door 
of the church, where she was received by the Bishop 
of London, the Dean of St. Paul's, and more than 
fifty other ecclesiastics, all in gorgeous copes, for 
the magnificent vestments of the Roman Catholic 
church were still used on great festival occasions. 
As the Queen entered the church her train was 
borne by the Marchioness of Winchester. Her 
Majesty knelt down and offered hearty thanks to 
God ; when her prayers were finished, she was con- 
ducted under a rich canopy, through the west 
aisle to her traverse in the choir, the clergy singing 
the Litany. When this was ended, she was at- 
tended to a closet especially constructed for her 
use, on the north wall of the church, toward the 
pulpit cross. After hearing a sermon by the 
Bishop of Salisbury, Her Majesty went back 
through the church to the Bishop's Palace where 
she dined. She returned to her residence at 
Somerset House in the manner of her starting, but 
with the addition of a great number of lighted 
torches. On this same day, prayers and psalms 
were appointed to be said for the victory in all 
the parish churches. 

Bishop Goodman gives a description of Queen 



2S2 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Elizabeth's demeanour a few weeks after the van- 
quishing of the Armada. 

" I did then hve in the Strand," he writes, " near 
St. Clement's Church, when suddenly there was a 
report (it was then December, about five and very 
dark) that the Queen was gone to Council, and I 
was told, ' If you will see the Queen, you must 
come quickly.' Then we all ran, when the Court 
gates were set open, and no man hindered us from 
coming in; there we staid an hour and a half, and 
the yard was full, there being a great number of 
torches, when the Queen came out in great state. 
Then we cried — 

" * God save Your Majesty ! ' 

" And the Queen turned to us and said, ' God 
bless you all, my good people.' 

" Then we cried again, ' God save Your Maj- 
esty ! ' And the Queen said again to us, ' Ye may 
well have a greater Prince, but ye shall never have 
a more loving Prince.' And so the Queen and the 
crowd there, looking upon one another a while. Her 
Majesty departed. This wrought such an im- 
pression upon us, for shows and pageants are best 
seen by torch-light, that all the way long we did 
nothing but talk of what an admirable Queen she 
was, and how we would all adventure our lives in 
her service." 



XVI 
QUEEN ELIZABETH REVISITS OXFORD 

On Friday, September 22, 1592, Her Majesty 
rode in a splendid open chariot to Godstow Bridge, 
about a mile from the City of Oxford. Here she 
was met by the Vice-Chancellor, the heads of the 
colleges, the Proctors and Beadles, all on foot and 
attired in their gowns, according to their degrees. 

The Queen stopped her chariot, and the Vice- 
Chancellor went through the usual ceremony of 
handing the beadles' staffs to the Sovereign, who 
handed them back and announced her willingness 
to listen to a speech " so that it were not too long, 
on account of the foulness of the weather." 

Then the representatives of the University, who 
were all upon their knees, rose, and the Senior 
Proctor delivered a short oration, showing " what 
great joy the University had conceived by Her 
Majesty's approaching so near unto them, and that 
in the name of the whole body, for the better mani- 
festing of their dutifulness, he was to yield up 
unto Her Majesty, the liberties, privileges, houses, 
colleges, temples, goods, with themselves also, and 
whatsoever they were by Her Majesty's goodness 
possessed of, with their most instant and dutiful 



234 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

prayers for the long and blessed preservation of 
Her Highness." 

From here, the Queen and her train rode on to 
within half a mile of Oxford where they were re- 
ceived by the Mayor and Aldermen. The Re- 
corder of the city made a speech of welcome and 
presented the Royal visitor with " a silver-gilt cup 
with sixty angels therein." 

As Queen Elizabeth entered the city, riding be- 
tween rows' of scholars drawn up on both sides 
of the streets, she was received by the people with 
enthusiastic acclamations, testifying to their loy- 
alty and devotion; while the students loudly 
shouted "Vivat Regina — long live the Queen ! " 
and handed her orations and verses in writing, for 
which she thanked them briefly in Latin, and gave 
them her blessing. The Greek Reader made a 
lengthy speech in Greek, and Her Majesty listened 
to this with gracious attention. 

From here she passed on to her lodgings in 
Christ Church, still riding through the double 
rows of scholars in their gowns, silken hoods and 
caps. 

On Saturday between three and four o'clock in 
the afternoon, Her Majesty, attended by her ret- 
inue, went to St. Mary's Church. She rode in 
her richly decorated carriage of State, and the 
Nobles followed on horseback. 

Upon reaching the church. Queen Elizabeth took 
her seat under a crimson canopy upon an elevated 
platform specially erected for her at the east end 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 235 

of the buildings near the choir. " A Philosophy 
act was provided for Her Highness." The pro- 
ceedings were opened by Her Majesty, who gave 
the command, " Incipiatis." 

Then the Proctors, after three low bows to their 
Sovereign, set forth the questions to be answered. 
The Answerer, who was the Orator of the Uni- 
versity, consumed half an hour in his responses, at 
which the Queen showed visible signs of weariness 
and impatience. When the Proctors, according to 
the custom, said to the Replier, " Procede, Magis- 
ter — proceed Master," Her Majesty, thinking 
this was addressed to the Answerer, cried, " He 
has been already too long." 

The Replier made an oration to the Queen. In 
the first part of his speech, he excused his dis- 
ability to speak fittingly in " that honourable 
presence," and then went on to discuss the ques- 
tions of the debate. Elizabeth was greatly pleased 
with his quick, witty answers, and plainly showed 
her approval. The next scholar who came for- 
ward, in the excitement of the debate, forgot his 
bows entirely, and did not address the Queen at 
all, but dealt with the Answerer, as though the 
august visitor were not there. The last Replier 
made no preliminary speech either, but his apt re- 
sponses SO' pleased Her Majesty that she com- 
manded him in Latin to continue his argument, 
even after the Proctors had cut him off. 

The Master of Martin College ended the ques- 
tions by a long speech, thanking the Queen, " for 



^6 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

her great patience in listening " and concluded 
" by a long discourse concerning such as God, by 
Her Highness, had bestowed upon us, and upon 
many foreign nations and Princes by Her High- 
ness' means." After this the Queen retired to her 
lodgings. 

During the whole of Her Majesty's stay at Ox- 
ford, a sermon in English was preached in one of 
the town churches every morning at the same place 
and hour. Three beadles were appointed to at- 
tend upon the Sovereign whenever she appeared in 
public. These men, in magnificent gowns with 
gold chains about their necks, were placed next 
in order before the Serge ants-at- Arms. The en- 
trance to St. Mary's Church was watched by the 
Guard, armed with halberds, to prevent any knock- 
ing at the doors, for this was annoying to the 
Queen. Besides the elevated stage built purposely 
for Her Majesty, a lower platform was erected on 
two sides of the church for the debaters, but there 
was no platform at the west end in order to allow 
better air to pass to the Maiden Monarch and also 
to prevent any one from sitting opposite her. The 
Answerers, as was customary, sat in the middle 
of the church, and the platform of the debaters was 
conspicuously lower than that upon which Queen 
Elizabeth was' seated, in regal splendour under a 
canopy of State. No one, save the Lord Cham- 
berlain, the Marchioness of Winton, and two or 
three other favoured ladies, were allowed at the 
end of the stage near the Royal Presence. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH ^37 

On Sunday night the comedy " Bellum Gram- 
maticale " was played before the Queen in the hall 
of Christ College. Although the performance was 
marred by poor acting, it was patiently and 
graciously received by Her Majesty. 

On Monday, the Lords of the Privy Council, who 
had accompanied their Royal Mistress to Oxford, 
dined in the common hall of Martin's College, after 
which a debate on Philosophy was held. The argu- 
ment was whether dissensions of the citizens were 
useful to the nation. The Senior Proctor took 
advantage of this discussion to praise the Lord 
Treasurer, Burleigh, the Lord Chamberlain, and 
the Earl of Essex for his valiant services in the 
Low Countries', Portugal and Spain. 

On Tuesday at three o'clock in the afternoon. 
Queen Elizabeth with her train, went to St. Mary's 
and heard a debate on Natural Philosophy. This 
was settled by a certain Giles Thompson of All 
Souls' with a learned speech. He said he would 
not stop to praise the Queen and her Nobles, " for 
that their virtues were greater than that they could 
be sufficiently recommended by him." The argu- 
ments of the Repliers greatly pleased the Queen. 
\ One of the questions for discussion was " Quod 
aere magis mutantur corpora humana quam cibo et 
potu — whether that the air, or meat or drink did 
most change man." Up rose " a merry Doctor of 
that Faculty, named Richard Ratcliff, going about 
to prove the negative, he showed forth a big, large 
body, a great fat belly, a side waist, all as he said, 



238 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

so changed with meat and drink, desiring to see 
any there so metamorphosed by the air." But 
in spite of this novel and convincing argument, the 
decision went against him. 

On this same day in her Presence Chamber, the 
Queen heard an oration by the Vice-Chancellor and 
was given, in the name of the whole University, 
two Bibles, one in Greek and the other in Latin. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Her Majesty listened 
to disputations on Law and Divinity. The de- 
bate was closed by the Bishop of Hereford, who 
delivered a lengthy speech in which he " gave a 
petition unto Her Highness for her gracious par- 
don, if anything had unadvisedly passed, wherein 
they or any of the University had offended." In 
conclusion, " he gave thanks unto Her Highness in 
the name of the honourable Chancellor, of himself, 
and the rest of the Doctors, and the whole company 
of students for her most gracious favour in vouch- 
safing them again Her Highness' presence, after 
six and twenty years, in that place and at those 
exercises." 

The good Bishop was so long in ending his 
speech that Queen Elizabeth grew exceedingly 
weary, and twice ordered him to cut it short, say- 
ing she intended to make a public speech herself 
that night. But the Bishop answered that " He 
could not put himself out of a set, methodical 
speech, for fear he should mar all, or else confound 
his memory." When he finally did draw his ora- 
tion to a close. Her Majesty was so tired that she 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 239 

promptly returned to her lodgings, without mak- 
ing the proposed address. 

The next morning, however, she summoned the 
Heads of the colleges to her apartments, and spoke 
her mind to them in Latin. She sharply rebuked 
the President of Corpus Christi College " for his 
obstinate preciseness," and ordered him to " fol- 
low her laws and not run before them." Then she 
began a speech in Latin, but noticing that the 
Lord Treasurer Burleigh was standing on his lame 
foot, she hastily ordered a chair for him, and would 
not continue her address until she saw him seated. 

This' little incident, showing Queen Elizabeth's 
regard for her faithful minister, was commented 
upon by one of the Doctors as an instance of Her 
Majesty's ability to interrupt herself in the midst 
of a set speech and not be put out, a thing which 
the Bishop dared not try on the day before. 

After her speech, the Queen talked with the Vice- 
Chancellor and the Doctors a little while, and then 
dismissed them. 

She departed from Oxford about noon of that 
same day. As* she set out from the University, 
in her coach of State, the people of the town gave 
her their best wishes, mingled with tears at her 
departure. When Her Majesty saw the eulogistic 
verses written in her honour, posted on the walls 
of the colleges, she graciously nodded and smiled 
to the scholars who were lustily shouting " Vivat 
Regina ! " 

After she heard a lengthy farewell oration de- 



^40 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

livered by the Junior Proctor, she gave many 
thanks, and, as she rode away, looked back wist- 
fully at the University, saying in Latin, " Fare- 
well, farewell, dear Oxford, God bless thee, and 
increase thy sons in number, holiness, and virtue." 



XVII 

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE QUEEN 

Queen Elizabeth always began the day by as- 
siduous attendance at prayers, after which she 
would busy herself with affairs of State. She was 
an indefatigable worker and used to rise before 
dawn every morning to transact business with her 
Secretaries of State and other officials. She then 
caused orders in Council, proclamations, and all 
other public papers to be read, and gave orders 
concerning each of them, which were set down in 
brief notes by herself or her Secretaries. When 
she had finished her State duties, she would take a 
walk in a shady garden, or, if it was rainy and 
windy, in a long gallery, with no attendants but 
a few learned men in whose conversation she de- 
lighted. She took especial pleasure in talking 
with scholarly travellers, of whom she asked many 
questions concerning the government and customs 
abroad. After her walk or a frugal meal Her 
Majesty generally took her coach, and before the 
eyes of her admiring subjects, rode to neighbour- 
ing groves and fields or sometimes to hunt or hawk. 
Scarcely a day passed in which she did not spend 

a portion of it reading history or pursuing some 
241 



S4?3 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

other serious study. All through her life she took 
delight in reading and translating Latin and Greek 
authors. Seneca's moral essays especially inter- 
ested her. Sometimes she pursued her studies be- 
fore her State duties, and sometimes afterward. 
She slept but little, ate very sparingly, seldom 
drank wine, and was a religious observer of fast 
days. She sometimes dined alone, but more often 
in company with a few cherished friends. In the 
summer time, her diet was even more frugal than 
customarily, and at meal time she would always 
have the windows wide open, for she was a lover of 
fresh air. 

When she dined in public, her table was mag- 
nificently served, and there were many side tables 
adorned with costly plate. There was an especial 
show of regal splendour when she entertained for- 
eign Ambassadors. At these times many of the 
highest nobility waited upon her very rever- 
entially, but she was served at all times on the 
knee. At these banquets she would order vocal 
and instrumental music during the dinner, and 
afterwards all would join in a dance. Her Majesty 
was an exceedingly graceful dancer, and kept up 
this' amusement, as a sort of exercise, to the end 
of her life. 

At supper she diverted herself with her friends 
and attendants, drawing them into merry and 
pleasant conversation by her gracious affability. 
After supper she would often listen to a song or 
a piece or two played upon the lute. She would 



QUEEN ELIZABETH MS 

then also admit Tarleton, a famous comedian, and 
other such men, encouraging them to tell her 
stories of the town, what had happened there, and 
some sprightly jests they had heard; but she al- 
ways showed strong displeasure at sarcastic jokes 
aimed at any one present, or at unseemly tales. 
Tarleton, however, pointed so many ill-natured 
thrusts at Raleigh and Leicester that the Queen 
finally forbade him or any of her jesters to come 
near her table. 

In the evening she frequently recreated herself 
with a game of chess, dancing, or singing. She 
often played at cards, and, if she won, always 
asked for the money. When she retired to her 
Privy Chamber, she was attended by married ladies 
of the nobility, chief among whom were the 
Marchioness of Winchester, the widowed Lady 
Warwick, and her own kinswoman. Lady Scrope. 
Leicester, Hatton, Essex, Her Majesty's cousin. 
Lord Admiral Nottingham, and Raleigh, were 
the chief ones who had entree to this apartment. 
When Queen Elizabeth felt herself becoming sleepy, 
she dismissed those who were present with kind- 
ness and dignified grace, and then went to rest. 
Some lady of high rank, who enjoyed her favour 
and esteem, always slept in the same chamber with 
her; and besides the guards who were constantly 
on duty outside the Royal bedchamber, there was 
always a gentleman of good quality and some 
others up in the next room to wake her if any 
disturbance occurred. 



^44 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

" She loved a prudent and moderate habit in her 
private apartments and conversation with her own 
servants; when she appeared in public, she was 
ever richly adorned with the most valuable clothes, 
set off again with much gold and jewels of inestima- 
ble value, and on such occasions she ever wore 
high shoes that she might seem taller than indeed 
she was*. On the first day of Parliament, she 
would appear in a robe embroidered with pearls, 
the royal crown on her head, the golden ball in her 
left hand, and the sceptre in her right; and, as 
she never failed then of the loud acclamations of 
the people, so she was ever pleased with it, and 
went along in a kind of triumph with all the en- 
signs of majesty. The Royal name was ever 
venerable to the English people, but this Queen's 
name was more sacred than any of her ancestors. 
In the furniture of the Palace she ever affected 
magnificence and extraordinary splendour. . . . 
She was a true lover of jewels, pearls, all sorts of 
precious stones, gold and silver plate, rich beds, 
fine couches and chariots, Persian and Indian car- 
pets, statues", medals, etc., which she would pur- 
chase at great prices. ... At Hampton Court she 
had caused her naval victories against the Spanish 
to be worked in fine tapestries and laid up among 
the richest pieces of her wardrobe." * 

Queen Elizabeth was very watchful of the morals 
of her Court, and dismissed from her service ladies 
who erred in this respect. She also visited her 
* Bohun. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 245 

strong displeasure upon gentlemen of easy morals, 
often delaying the promotion of otherwise deserv- 
ing men until they reformed. 

The ceremonial of the Virgin Court was like that 
of the East. No person of any rank ventured 
to address the Queen except upon their knees. All 
the ministers of State did likewise during their 
business hours, with the exception of Burleigh, who 
was excused from this when he grew old and infirm. 

Hentzner, a German traveller, who visited Eng- 
land toward the close of Her Majesty's reign, gives 
an interesting description of Queen Elizabeth and 
her Court. He had the privilege of watching the 
Queen as she proceeded to chapel. 

" First," he writes, " went gentlemen, Barons, 
Earls and Knights of the Garter, all richly dressed 
and bare-headed, next came the Chancellor, bearing 
the seals in a red silk purse, between two: one of 
which carried the royal sceptre, the other the 
Sword of State, in a red scabbard, studded with 
golden fleurs-de^is, the point upwards : next came 
the Queen, in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we 
were told, very majestic, her face oblong, fair, but 
wrinkled, her eyes small, yet black and pleasant, 
her nose a little hooked, her lips narrow, and her 
teeth black (a defect the English seem subject 
to from their too great use of sugar), she had in 
her ears two pearls with very rich drops, she wore 
false hair, and that red, upon her head she had 
a small crown. . . . Her bosom was uncovered as 
all English ladies have it till they marry, she had 



M6 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

on a necklace of exceeding fine jewels, her hands 
were small, her fingers long. Her stature neither 
tall nor low; her air was stately, and her manner 
of speaking mild and obliging. That day she was 
dressed in white silk, bordered with pearls' of the 
size of beans, and over it a mantle of black silk, 
shot with silver threads, her train was very long, 
the end of it borne by a Marchioness, and instead 
of a chain, she had an oblong collar of gold and 
jewels. . . . She spoke very graciously, first to 
one and then to another, whether foreign ministers 
or those who attended her for different reasons, in 
English, French, and Italian, for, besides being 
well-skilled in Greek, Latin, and the languages I 
have mentioned, she is mistress of Spanish, Scotch, 
and Dutch. Whoever speaks to her it is kneeling, 
now and then she raises some with her hand. . . . 
A Bohemian Baron had letters to present to her; 
and she, after pulling off her glove, gave him her 
right hand to kiss, sparkling with rings and jewels, 
a mark of particular favour. Wherever she turned 
her face, as she was going along, everybody fell on 
their knees. The ladies of the Court followed 
next to her. . . . she was guarded on each side 
by Gentlemen Pensioners, fifty in number, with gilt 
battle-axes. In the ante-chapel, next the hall 
where we were, petitions were presented to her, and 
she received them most graciously, which occasioned 
acclamations of ' Long live Queen Elizabeth ! ' 
She answered it with, ' I thank you, my good peo- 
ple.' " 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 247 

Hentzner then goes on to describe the ceremony 
at Her Majesty's dinner table. Those who 
brought in the dishes kneeled three times before 
placing them on the table. 

" At last came an unmarried lady and along with 
her a married one, bearing a tasting knife, who, 
when she had prostrated herself three times in 
most graceful manner, approached the table and 
rubbed the plate with as much awe as if the Queen 
had been present." 

After the dishes had been brought in by Yeo- 
men of the Guard, bare-headed and clad in scarlet, 
they were received by a gentleman, and placed on 
the table " while the lady-taster gave to each of 
the Guard a mouthful to eat of the particular dish 
he had brought for fear of any poison." 

During all this formality " twelve trumpets and 
two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half an 
hour together. At the end of this ceremonial a 
number of unmarried ladies' appeared who, with 
particular solemnity, lifted the meat off the table 
and conveyed it into the Queen's inner and more 
private chamber where, after she had chosen for 
herself, the rest goes to the ladies of the Court. 
The Queen dines and sups alone, with very few at- 
tendants, and it is very seldom that anybody, for- 
eigner or native, is admitted at that time, and then 
only at the intercession of somebody in power." 

Sir John Harington, in a letter to Mr. Robert 
Markham, written three years after the death of 
Queen Elizabeth, says of his Royal godmother: 



^48 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

" Her mind was ofttime like the gentle air that 
Cometh from the westerly point in a summer's 
morn; 'twas sweet and refreshing to all around 
her. Her speech did win all affections, and her 
sub j ects did try to show all love to her commands ; 
for she would say ' her state did require her to 
command what she knew her people would willingly 
do from their own love to her.' Herein did she 
show her wisdom fully ; for who did choose to lose 
her confidence or who would withhold a show of 
love and obedience when their Sovereign said it 
was their own choice and not her compulsion ? . . , 
Again she could put forth such alterations when 
obedience was' lacking, as left no doubtings whose 
daughter she was. . . . Her Highness was wont to 
soothe her ruffled temper with reading every morn- 
ing, when she had been stirred to passion at Coun- 
cil, or other matters had overthrown her gracious 
disposition; she did much admire Seneca's whole- 
some advisings', when the soul's quiet was flown 
away, and I saw much of her translations thereof. 
" On the morrow every one did come forth in her 
presence and discourse at large, and, if any had 
dissembled with her, or stood not well to her ad- 
visings before, she did not let it go unheeded, and 
sometimes not unpunished. Sir Christopher Hat- 
ton was' wont to say ' The Queen did fish for men's 
souls, and had so sweet a bait that no one could 
escape her net-work.' In truth, I am sure her 
speech was such as none could refuse to take de- 
light in when forwardness did not stand in the way. 



I 



QUEEN ELIZABETH M9 

I have seen her smile, soothe with great semblance 
of good liking to all around, cause every one to 
open his' most inward thought to her, when, on a 
sudden, she would ponder in private on what had 
passed, write down all their opinions, draw them 
out as occasion required, and sometimes disprove 
to their faces what had been delivered a month be- 
fore. Hence, she knew every one's part and by 
this fishing, as Hatton said, she caught many poor 
fish, who little dreamed what snare was laid for 
them. . . . We did all love her, for she said she 
loved us, and much wisdom she showed in this 
matter. She did well temper herself towards all 
at home. ... As I did bear so much love toward 
Her Majesty, I know not well how to stop my tales 
of her virtues and sometimes her faults', for ' nemo 
nascitur sine,' saith the poet — no one is bom 
without faults ; but even her errors did seem great 
marks of surprising endowments. When she did 
smile, it was a pure sunshine that every one did 
choose to bask in if they could, but anon, came a 
storm from a sudden gathering of clouds, and the 
thunder fell in wondrous manner on all alike. I 
never did find greater show of understanding and 
learning than she was blest with." 



XVIII 
THE FALL OF ESSEX 

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, whose rash dis- 
obedience and base ingratitude embittered the last 
years of Queen Elizabeth's life, was the son of that 
Dowager Countess of Essex, who married the Earl 
of Leicester. Young Essex was bom in 1567, and, 
at an early age, was attracted to the Court, where 
his handsome person and courtly manners, when 
he chose to have them so, drew upon him the favour 
of the Queen, who lavished on him the affection of 
a fond mother for a spoiled child. For, like a 
spoiled child, he pleaded and sulked when his every 
wish was not immediately gratified. He repaid 
the Queen's regard for him by such disobedience 
and insolence as no one else would have ventured 
to address to their imperious Sovereign. He fre- 
quently made secret and unauthorized departures 
from Court, and his favourite method of restoring 
himself to the Queen's favour after one of these 
stolen trips, or after a bitter disagreement with 
his Royal Mistress, was to feign illness and take to 
his bed. Elizabeth, who always showed great sym- 
pathy with all the ailments of her courtiers and 
ministers of State, was often imposed upon in this 

fashion. 

Q50 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 251 

At the time of one of Essex's unauthorized mili- 
tary expeditions, Queen Elizabeth, with her own 
hand, wrote him a letter which was a strange mix- 
ture of displeasure and affection. No one but the 
presumptuous young Earl could have hoped to 
escape severe punishment for his offense, for he 
had fled from the Court without even informing the 
Queen of his intentions to do military service in 
France; much less did he wait for her permission, 
but abandoning to the four winds' his important 
duties as Her Majesty's Master of the Horse, lit- 
erally ran away, like a naughty school boy, to 
pamper to his taste for martial glory. 

The letter from Queen Elizabeth is as follows : — 

Essex: 

Your sudden and undutiful departure from our 
presence and your place of attendance, you may easily 
conceive how offensive it is, and ought to be, unto us. 
Our great favours bestowed upon you without deserts 
hath drawn you thus to neglect and forget your duty; 
for other construction we cannot make of these your 
strange actions. Not meaning therefore to tolerate 
this your disordered part, we gave directions to some 
of our Privy Council to let you know our express 
pleasure for your immediate repair hither, which you 
have not performed as your duty doth bind you, in- 
creasing thereby greatly your former offence and un- 
dutiful behaviour in departing in such sort without 
our privity, having so special office of attendance and 
charge near our person. We do therefore charge and 
command you forthwith upon receipt of these our 
letters, all excuses and delays set apart, to make your 



252 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

present and immediate repair unto us, to understand 
our further pleasure. Whereof see you fail not, as 
you will be loth to incur our indignation and will an- 
swer for the contrary at your uttermost peril. 

The 15th of April, 1589. 

Even the wilful Essex dared not disobey these 
strict commands, but set sail for England in all 
haste. The primary cause of the Queen's peremp- 
tory letter to the Earl was the report she had heard 
of the reckless manner in which he exposed himself 
in battle. She often remarked, " We shall have 
this young fellow knocked on the head as foolish 
Sidney was, by his own forwardness," and her 
anxiety did not cease until she heard that the ob- 
ject of her solicitude was actually on the way home. 
To his great astonishment she received him gra- 
ciously, being pleased no doubt, with his unex- 
pected and certainly unusual obedience. For a 
week Her Majesty entertained him at Court with 
feasting and merriment and then, to satisfy his 
war-like aspirations, gave him leave to return to 
his military command. 

Essex's secret marriage to the widow of the 
chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney, threw Queen Eliza- 
beth into a transport of rage. To mollify his 
Sovereign's anger, the newly made husband seemed 
quite content that his wife should live in retirement 
at her mother's house, while he angled for high 
positions of command and was insolent to his 
Queen, and impatient of all restraint which delayed 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 253 

him in his ambitious designs of attaining the high- 
est place in the Realm by long leaps. Although 
he was distinguished for reckless valour in expe- 
ditions against the Spaniards and as Commander of 
the English army in France, he showed but little 
real knowledge of military tactics. Queen Eliza- 
beth's regard for him soon waned on account of 
his arrogant and rebellious behaviour toward her, 
and his violent jealousy whenever she bestowed a 
favour upon others more deserving than he. When 
Her Majesty heard that Essex had actually fought 
a duel with Sir Charles Blount because she had 
granted him some boon, she cried, angrily, " By 
God's death, it were fitting some one should take 
him down and teach him better manners or there 
were no rule with him." 

His greatest enemy at Court was the new Secre- 
tary of State, the second son of Lord Burleigh, 
Sir Robert Cecil. He possessed talents similar, 
though inferior, to his father's, and, in spite of 
his ugly and deformed appearance, had succeeded, 
by dint of courtier-like tact and untiring perse- 
verance, in recommending himself to the good 
graces of his dainty Sovereign, who had such an 
antipathy to ugly men. Cecil took pains to fo- 
ment, as far as' lay in his power, every quarrel 
between the Queen and Essex. 

The climax of Essex's rude insolence to the 
Queen's person culminated in an act that ap- 
proached dangerously near high treason, and would 
probably have been so' regarded by a less indulgent 



g54 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Sovereign. A heated debate was held one day in 
the Royal cabinet over the selection of a suitable 
man to fill the difficult post of Lord Deputy to 
Ireland. No one was present but Her Majesty, the 
Lord Admiral, Sir Robert Cecil, the Clerk of the 
Seal, and Essex. The Queen named Sir William 
Knollys, a relative of hers and uncle to Essex, as 
the most suitable person. But Essex, knowing 
that this appointment would be pleasing to both 
the Cecils, vehemently and indiscreetly opposed it, 
insisting that Sir George Carew be sent instead. 
As Essex was jealous of Carew and had long 
wished to rid the Court of him, his now warm ad- 
vocacy of him, together with the domineering fash- 
ion in which he presumed to override the Queen's 
opinion, called down upon him a sarcastic reproof 
from Her Majesty. Upon this, Essex, completely 
forgetting the respect due to his' Sovereign, turned 
his back upon her with a contemptuous look. 
V Queen Elizabeth, losing all self-control at his 
unbounded insolence, gave him a sound box on the 
ear, and told him " to go and be hanged." In- 
stantly the petulant Earl laid his hand on his 
sword with a threatening gesture, and, when the 
Lord Admiral stepped between him and the Queen 
he had insulted, he swore a great oath that 
he would not have taken that blow from Henry 
VIII, and, muttering something about " a King 
in petticoats," rushed from the Court in a pas- 
sion. 

The Lord Chancellor wrote to him and advised 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 255 

him to appeal to the mercy of the Queen whom he 
had so offended. One might well think that Essex's 
own heart would have shown him the reverence 
due to a Sovereign and a woman of the advanced 
age of sixty-five, to which Queen Elizabeth had 
then attained. But neither did any sense of his 
own wrong-doing nor the Chancellor's letter elicit 
from the Earl anything but a rude and defiant re- 
ply. He stated that " his whole body was injured 
by that one blow, and having received that indig- 
nity, it were impiety in him to serve longer." He 
was too blinded by passion to see that the " im- 
piety " consisted in the unpardonable insult he 
had offered to his forgiving Queen and benefac- 
tress. 

At length, however, he appeared more submis- 
isive, and, by a continued show of contrition, ob- 
tained pardon from his offended Queen, but he 
never again regained her favour, for she saw now 
the dangerous nature of the ingrate she had be- 
stowed her regard upon, and he a kinsman as well 
as protege, being the great-grandson of her aunt. 
Mary Boleyn. 

Essex finally in 1599 obtained the long cov- 
eted post of Lord Deputy of Ireland. His ap- 
pointment was warmly advocated by his bitter en- 
emy. Sir Robert Cecil, who, doubtless, counted on 
the strong probability of his destroying himself 
there by his rash perversity and exaggerated ego- 
tism, exactly as he did do. The Queen gave her 
consent to the appointment of Essex, after long 



256 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

delay, and with visible reluctance. She realized 
the dangers attendant upon placing the possession 
of an army in the hands of one whose loyalty she 
had every reason to doubt and one who had also 
contrived to become a popular favourite. So she 
sent her godson, Harington, to keep watch upon 
his actions. 

Mr. Robert Markham, a kinsman of Harington, 
wrote to him to beware of Essex, saying, " he go- 
eth not forth to serve the Queen's Realm, but to 
humour his own revenge." 

Essex, in spite of his unlimited self-confidence, 
made a bad muddle of affairs in Ireland, and, with 
his usual reckless presumption, disobeyed the 
Queen's express commands. He further increased 
her ire by knighting some of his followers, among 
them John Harington, who, on account of this 
and his increasing friendliness for Essex, now came 
in for a large share of royal displeasure. The 
privilege of making knights Queen Elizabeth wished 
to be exercised by herself, and not by her arrogant 
subject. 

When she censured him for his mismangement, 
he impertinently reproached her for showing fa- 
vour to Cecil, " that knave Raleigh," and that 
" sycophant Cobham," and began to mutter threats 
of bringing troops to England to remove his ene- 
mies there. When rumours' of this treasonable in- 
tent reached the sharp ears of Queen Elizabeth, she 
wrote him instantly in her usual vigourous style. 
" We do charge you," she said, " as you tender our 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 257 

displeasure, that you adventure not to come out of 
that Kingdom." 

He next sent word that he needed reinforcements 
in order to invade Ulster. But, when he had re- 
ceived them, instead of fighting, he patched up an 
unauthorized truce with the rebel, Tyrone, and 
then, rashly quitting his command, fled to England. 
He reached London September 28th, after an ab- 
sence of about five months, and at once hastened 
to Nonsuch, where Queen Elizabeth was holding her 
Court. 

^ Essex arrived at the Court at ten o'clock in the 
morning. In his frantic haste to see the Queen 
and plead his cause in person before the news of 
his daring return could reach her ears, he burst 
into her bedchamber, all muddy and travel-stained 
as he was, and falling on his knees before her, cov- 
ered her hands with kisses'. Queen Elizabeth, who 
had just arisen, and was standing among her tire- 
women, with her grey hair falling about her shoul- 
ders, for she had not had time to make choice of one 
of her numerous wigs of various colours, which she 
wore in later life, was so utterly astounded by 
the Earl's' unexpected appearance and his unheard 
of presumption, that she did not fly into such a 
passion as might have been expected. 

- An hour or twoi later she gave him another audi- 
ence, and listened to his excuses, but in the even- 
ing, after the matter had been referred to the 
Council, Essex was placed under arrest, and never 
saw his Queen again. 



258 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Harington came in for a good share of Queen 
Elizabeth's' anger when he sought an audience of 
her after Eessex's return. He says, " She chafed 
much, walked fastly to and fro, looked with dis- 
composure in her visage, and, I remember, she 
catched my girdle when I kneeled to her, and swore, 
' By God's Son, I am no Queen, that man is above 
me. Who gave him command to come here so 
soon.'' I did send him on other business.' It was 
long before more gracious discourse did fall to my 
hearing, but I was then bid ' Go home ! ' I did 
not stay to be bidden twice. If all the Irish rebels 
had been at my heels, I should not have had better 
speed, for I did now flee from one whom I both 
loved and feared too." 

Harington writes to a friend about this time: 
" Every man wondered to see me at liberty, though 
in conscience there was neither rhyme nor reason 
to punish me for going to see Tyrone (he had ac- 
companied Essex at the making of the truce, and 
had bestowed a copy of his ' Ariosto ' on one of 
the young rebels), yet if my rhyme had not been 
better liked of than my reason (I mean when I gave 
the young Baron of Dungannon an 'Ariosto') I 
think I had been by the heels for it. But I had 
the good fortune that after four or five days, the 
Queen had talked of me, though very briefly. At 
last, she gave me a full and gracious audience in 
the withdrawing room at Whitehall, where herself 
being accuser, judge, and witness, I was cleared 
and graciously dismissed. What should I say! 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 259 

I seemed to myself like St. Paul rapt up in the 
third Heaven where he heard words not to be ut- 
tered by men. . . . Until I come to Heaven, I 
shall never come to a statelier judge again nor one 
that can temper majesty, wisdom, learning, choler, 
favour, better than Her Highness did at that 
time." 

Essex, according to his* custom, promptly took 
to his bed at the Queen's continued displeasure; 
for once his illness was not feigned. But Her 
Majesty had been tricked in this fashion so often 
that she refused to believe in the reality of his 
sickness, until the eight physicians he had in at- 
tendance announced that he was near death. Then 
Queen Elizabeth showed him a little pity; she 
allowed some of his friends to visit him, and gave 
him the liberty of the garden. She next sent him 
her own physician with some broth and a message 
of comfort, but she was soon persuaded by her 
ministers' that this illness was, after all, a feint, 
and abruptly ceased her kind inquiries after his 
health. 

After a delay of nine months, Essex recovered 
from his sickness, and was tried before a special 
commission. The charges were : " His contemp- 
tuous disobedience of Her Majesty's letters, and 
his will in returning; his presumptuous letters 
written from time to time; his proceedings in Ire- 
land contrary to the points resolved upon in Eng- 
land before he went; his rash manner of coming 
away from Ireland; his overbold going the day 



260 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

before to Her Majesty's bedchamber ; and his mak- 
ing so many idle knights." 

The Earl gave an eloquent defense, kneeling, 
and remained in this abject posture during most 
of the proceedings, which lasted from nine in the 
morning till eight at night. The Commission 
found him guilty on all the charges, and ordered 
him to cease his duties as Privy Councillor, Earl 
Marshal, and Master of Ordnance, to return at 
once to his house, and there to remain a prisoner at 
the Queen's pleasure. 

He now began to write very submissive letters 
to Her Majesty and begged her to " let her servant 
depart in peace " to his country seat, asking per- 
mission only to' kiss her hand before leaving Court 
forever. Queen Elizabeth rejoiced at his apparent 
humility and set him at full liberty, but warned 
him to " make himself and his own discretion his' 
keeper and not to approach the Court or her per- 
son." 

That summer the Queen, to divert her mind from 
these unpleasant occurrences, attended the mar- 
riage of one of her maids of honour, the daughter 
of Lady Russell, to the son of the Earl of Worces- 
ter. Her Majesty was carried from the water 
side in a lectica or semi-litter, borne by six Knights. 
After the wedding repast, she went to Lord Cob- 
ham's to supper. 

Here there was a mask given by eight ladies ; 
after they had finished their part, they chose eight 
more ladies to complete the dance. Mrs. Fitton, 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 261 

the premiere danseuse, came up and " wooed " the 
Queen to dance. 

"Who art thou?" asked the Queen. "Affec- 
tion," replied Mrs. Fitton. " Affection," said 
Queen Elizabeth, significantly, " ds false ; " she 
arose, however, and finished out the dance. 

Rowland Whyte tells us in his " gossipy " letters 
to Sir Robert Sidney that the Queen to further 
divert her thoughts " This day appoints to see a 
Frenchman do feats upon a cord in the conduit 
court. To-morrow she hath commanded the bears, 
the bull, and the ape to be baited in the tilt-yard ; 
upon Wednesday she will have solemn dancing." 

\ About this time. Sir Robert Sidney writes to 
Harington : " I do see the Queen often. She 
doth wax weak since the late troubles, and Bur- 
leigh's death doth often draw tears down her 
goodly cheeks ; she walketh out but little, meditates 
much alone, and sometimes" writes in private to her 
friends." He then goes on to describe in detail a 
visit the Queen paid to his house, and how the in- 
firmities of old age were advancing upon the great 
Elizabeth, in spite of her Spartan-like attempts to 
hide the fact. Sidney's son made an eloquent 
speech of welcome to the Royal guest, and the 
women of the household gave a dancing exhibition 
before her, while cornets played loudly in the gal- 
lery. 

" She did vouchsafe to eat two morsels' of rich 
comfit cakes and drank a small cordial from a gold 
cup," continues Sidney. " She had a marvellous 



26a QUEEN ELIZABETH 

suit of velvet borne by four of her first women at- 
tendants in rich apparel ; two ushers did go before, 
and, at going up stairs, she called for a staff, and 
was much wearied in walking about the house and 
said she wished to come another day. Six drums 
and six trumpets waited in the court and sounded 
at her approach and departure." 

Queen Elizabeth highly praised the splendid at- 
tire of her hosts and smiled graciously at the ladies, 
who, after their dance, came up to the platform on 
which she sat, to make their obeisance. After the 
day's entertainment was over, " the Queen went and 
tasted a small beverage that was set out in divers 
rooms where she might pass ; and then, in much the 
same order, was attended to her Palace, the cornets 
and trumpets sounding through the streets." 

The Queen appointed Lord Mountjoye to the 
vacant post of Lord Deputy of Ireland. When 
she mentioned this appointment to Francis Bacon, 
whose patron Essex had been, he said, " Surely, 
Madam, you cannot make a better choice, unless 
you send over my Lord Essex." 

Queen Elizabeth's vehement response showed 
that the Earl still lay under the weight of her 
strong displeasure. " Essex ! " she exclaimed, 
" when I send Essex back into Ireland, I will marry 
you. Claim it of me." 

Essex, before going to his country estate, said 
to Lord Henry Howard, with the ostensible pur- 
pose of having his words repeated to the Queen, 
that he kissed her royal hand and that rod which 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 263 

had corrected him, not ruined him; but he could 
never be possessed of his wonted joy again, till he 
beheld those benign looks of hers which had been 
his star to direct and guide him. He added that he 
was now determined to repent him of his fault, and 
to say with Nebuchadnezzar, " Let my dwelling be 
with the beasts of the field to eat grass as an ox, 
and to be wet with the dew of Heaven till it shall 
please the Queen to restore my understanding unto 
me." 

^ When this was reported to Queen Elizabeth, she 
said : " Would to God his' deeds would be answer- 
able to his words. He hath a long time tried my 
patience and I must have some time to make proof 
of his humility. My father would never have en- 
dured such perverseness. But I will not look be- 
hind me, lest with Lot's wife, I be turned into a 
pillar of salt. ' All is not gold that glittereth.' 
If this could be brought to pass by the furnace, I 
should be more favourable to the profession of 
alchemy." 

Essex, however, was led to appear so humble and 
submissive from mercenary motives wholly. When 
he had been enjoying the former favour of the 
Queen, she had granted him the monopoly of a 
farm of sweet wines, which brought him in the 
enormous sum of £50,000 a year. The term for 
which he held this lucrative farm was soon to ex- 
pire, and he was directing all his energies to gain 
a renewal of it, for he was deeply involved in debt. 

When Queen Elizabeth found out the cause of 



264 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

this submissive behaviour, her indignation against 
Essex increased, and she not only rejected his suit, 
but sent back the taunting reply that " an ungov- 
ernable beast must be stinted of his provender to 
bring him under management." 

Essex, rendered desperate by the rejection of 
his suit, now showed forth his resentment against 
the Queen in treasonable and insulting speeches, 
while his house became the gathering-place for re- 
ligious and social malcontents of the most aban- 
doned sort. Many of these later on took part in 
the Gunpowder Plot. To serve his own selfish and 
malicious aims, Essex was willing to overthrow a 
popular Sovereign, his own benefactress, and the 
idol of her subjects, and the excellent government 
she had established, founded on the respect and ad- 
miration of the nation. His speeches of the Queen 
were such that Harington writes : " In my late 
discourse, he uttered strange words bordering on 
such strange designs that made me hasten forth 
and leave his presence. His speeches of the Queen 
becometh no man who hath mens sana in corpore 
sana — a sound mind in a sound body. The Queen 
well knoweth how to humble the haughty spirit, the 
haughty spirit knoweth not how to yield, and the 
man's soul seemeth tossed to and fro like the waves 
of a troubled sea." 

Essex carried on a secret correspondence with 
the Scotch King, urging him to demand the recog- 
nition of his title as heir to the English Throne by 
arms, and also tried to persuade the new Deputy 



QUEEN ELIZABETH S65 

of Ireland to carry his army to Scotland and place 
it at the disposal of King James. Although these 
intrigues were not then known to the government, 
it was noticed that swash-bucklers and desperadoes 
were holding meetings at Essex's house together 
with some suspected Nobles and gentlemen; that 
some Puritan clergymen were praying for his cause, 
and that there was some tumult going on in the 
city. The Council then ordered him to appear be- 
fore them. Instead of obeying, he made a desper- 
ate attempt, with the assistance of Lord Southamp- 
ton, four other Nobles, and about 300 followers to 
raise the citizens of London to rebel against the 
government and force the Queen to grant his de- 
mands. 

Harington gives a vivid sketch of the uneasiness 
^and excitement pervading the Court at this time 
of suspense. " The madcaps are all in riot," he 
writes, " and much evil threatened. In good 
sooth, I fear Her Majesty more than the rebel 
Tyrone and wish I had never received my Lord 
of Essex's knighthood. She is quite disfavoured 
and unattired, and these troubles waste her much. 
She disregardeth every costly cover that cometh to 
the table, and taketh little but manchet and succory 
pot age. Every new message from the city doth 
disturb her, and she frowns on all the ladies. I 
had a sharp message from her brought by my Lord 
Buckhurst, namely thus, — ' Go tell that witty fel- 
low, my godson, to get home; it is no season to 
fool it here.' I liked this as little as she doth my 



266 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

knighthood. . . . The many evil plots and designs 
have overcome all Her Highness' sweet temper. 
She walks much in her Privy Chamber, and stamps 
much with her feet at ill news, and thrusts her rusty 
sword at times into the arras in great rage. I 
obtained short audience at my first coming to 
Court when Her Highness told me, ' If ill counsel 
had brought me so far from home, she wished 
Heaven might mar that fortune which she had 
mended.' " Harington adds in a postscript to this 
interesting letter that " Her Highness hath worn 
but one change of raiment for many days, and 
swears much at those that cause her grief in such 
wise to the no small discomfiture of all about her." 
\ On Sunday morning, February 8th, Essex as- 
sembled his little band of misguided followers at 
his house and proposed to march them to Paul's 
Cross in Cheapside, and there to induce the Lord 
Mayor and the throng of citizens, who attended 
church services at that place, to join his handful 
of rebels'. But one of his number had betrayed 
all his plans to Cecil. The Mayor and Aldermen 
were consequently ordered to keep the people within 
their houses and not to allow them to hear the 
preaching. The guards at the Royal Palace were 
doubled and every precaution taken to repel the 
expected attack. 

At ten o'clock in the morning the Lord Chancel- 
lor and other officials forced their way into Essex 
House, and, in the name of the Queen, ordered the 
Earl's disorderly partisans to lay down their arms. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 267 

This command had the effect of a call to action. 
Essex, urged on by the turbulent mob, actually 
locked up the Chancellor and his' companions in 
his house, and then rushed wildly into the streets 
like the madman that he was. His frantic fol- 
lowers, some brandishing rapiers, and others pis- 
tols, dashed after him, shouting, " England is sold 
to Spain by Cecil and Raleigh ! They will give the 
Crown to the Infanta! Citizens of London, arm 
for England and the Queen ! " 

\ No one rose to this delusive call, and Essex con- 
tinued to run through the deserted streets, waving 
his sword, and vainly shouting, " For the Queen ! 
For the Queen ! " The citizens of London were 
loyal subjects, and he was not even able to obtain 
arms and ammunition in the shops. There was' 
some slight skirmishing on Ludgate Hill, but, after 
Essex had slain a man with his own hand, and been 
shot through the hat, his followers began to for- 
sake him. He had already been proclaimed a 
traitor in three different quarters of the city by the 
Garter King-at-Arms, Thomas, Lord Burleigh, and 
the Earl of Cumberland. Still desperate and re- 
vengeful, Essex forced his way back to his house. 
Queen Elizabeth was at dinner when she was told 
that her former favourite was not only trying to 
raise the city to rebellion, but had actually suc- 
ceeded. She, however, showed no fear at all, al- 
though her attendants were overwhelmed with ter- 
ror. " She was never more amazed than she would 
have been to have heard of a fray in Fleet street," 



£68 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

writes Cecil later in a letter to Sir George Carew. 
Her Majesty alone of all those at Court coolly 
proposed going to oppose the rebels. She declared, 
and probably with truth that " not one of them 
would dare to meet a single glance of her eye. 
They would flee at the very notice of her ap- 
proach." And indeed there were none, men of the 
sword though they might be, but quailed before 
" the lioness of England " when she was roused to 
wrath. 

" When Essex reached home he found his pris- 
oners liberated, and his house surrounded by the 
Queen's forces. At about ten o'clock that night 
he and his remaining followers surrendered to the 
besiegers. The next day they were taken to the 
Tower. 

\ On the 19th Essex was brought to trial, and, of 
course, found guilty of open and inexcusable acts 
of treason, which rendered his execution a State 
necessity. Queen Elizabeth affixed to the death 
warrant her firmly written and beautifully flour- 
ished autograph, and there is no evidence that she 
ever regretted having allowed justice to take its 
course. (The story of the ring, reported to have 
been intercepted by the Countess of Nottingham, 
has been utterly disproved.) Elizabeth had long 
before warned Essex that while she might pardon 
much disrespect to her person, he must not touch 
her sceptre or he would be punished by the laws of 
England, which were not so lenient as she had been. 
Only three of the Earl's accomplices were sen- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 269 

tenced to capital punishment. The five Lords, 
who were not very powerful or very dangerous, en- 
joyed the Queen's usual clemency. But on the 
25th of February, 1600, in the thirty-fourth year 
of his age, perished the headstrong Earl of Essex, 
who might have attained to something worth while 
if he had turned his fiery talents to the faithful 
service of his Queen, instead of blindly obeying his 
own mad passions. 



XIX 

"THE SETTING OF THE WESTERN 
LUMINARY " 

The glorious life of mighty Elizabeth was now 
drawing to a close. She had lived to see her ene- 
mies' prostrate at her feet, and, by her wisdom 
and fortitude had raised her beloved England from 
the position of a weak and tottering state to that 
of a united and potent world power. She was the 
admiration not only of her own people, but even of 
all the nations of Europe. " Her very enemies 
proclaimed her the most glorious and fortunate of 
all women who ever wore a crown," writes a French 
historian. 

Yet, in the last months of her life, a deep melan- 
choly was settling over her, and, in 160^ she told 
de Beaumont, the French Ambassador, that she was 
"^weary of life." 

\ This brooding melancholy may well have been 
a symptom of that distressing complication of mal- 
adies of which she sickened and died. Then, too, 
she, who had hitherto enjoyed vigourous health, 
thanks to her " exact temperance both as to wine 
and diet, which she was wont to say, was' the no- 
blest part of physic " and her untiring activity, 
270 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 271 

was now cut off by her increasing infirmities from 
many of her former enjoyments and accustomed 
pursuits. She had seen her faithful friends and 
trusty ministers of former days pass one by one to 
their grave, she had no near relatives, and, in her 
old age, found herself surrounded by a new and 
younger generation, some of whom, venal wordlings 
as they were, were already worshippers of the rising 
sun in the person of the Scottish King. Then, 
too, the ingratitude of Essex and the anxieties of 
the Irish rebellion prayed upon her mind, and when, 
against her wish, she granted life to the rebel Ty- 
rone, yielding to the importunities of her ministers 
who represented to her the impossibility of con- 
tinuing the struggle against the rebels, she regarded 
this as a bitter disgrace and often spoke of it so. 
But Tyrone was neither so powerful nor so in- 
vincible an enemy as had been supposed. Instead, 
he was in desperate straits, and, not waiting to re- 
ceive the hard conditions imposed by the English 
Queen, threw himself at the feet of the Deputy 
and surrendered his lands and life to the Queen's 
mercy. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth never 
learned of this final submission, for the news of it 
did not reach London until four days after her 
death. 

On October 27th, 1601, the Queen summoned her 
last Parliament to meet at Westminster. She 
opened it in person with the accustomed pomp and 
ceremony, but the weight of the parliamentary 
robes was such that her weakened body was unable 



272 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

to support them, and she was* actually falling to 
the ground when the nearest Nobleman caught and 
upheld her in his arms. But the force of her mind 
overcame her bodily weakness, and she went 
through the fatiguing ceremonies with her usual 
grace and dignity. 

This was only the thirteenth Parliament sum- 
moned in her long reign, for the functions of this 
body were simply to grant money when the ordi- 
nary Crown revenues were insufficient, and to make 
laws. It was a popular measure for a Sovereign 
to do without Parliaments, for then there were no 
additional taxes. The country was governed 
wholly by the Queen, with the advice of her min- 
isters, and Parliament had purely legislative pow- 
ers. The ruler was expected to' defray the ex- 
penses of the government out of the Crown rev- 
enues, which, at the end of Elizabeth's reign, was 
about £300,000 per annum,* and a subsidy was re- 
garded, not as a necessity, but as an extraordinary 
mark of the people's good-will. 

Queen Elizabeth, by her good management and 
strict economy, not only paid the expenses of 
government out of the ordinary revenue, but even 
discharged the debts of the preceding reigns and 
collected a small reserve fund. But the expenses 
of the war with Spain wasted this reserve, and 
forced her to ask for subsidies. These necessary 
requests were met with some unreasonable grum- 
blings from Parliament, but when the Queen, with 
* Beesly's Queen Elizabeth. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 273 

her wonted good sense, explained to them, though 
as she correctly observed, there was no constitu- 
tional precedent to oblige her to do so, how a large 
expenditure had been necessary for the safety of 
the country, these parliamentary grumblers were 
silenced. As the Queen was a single woman, man- 
aging the expenses of her household with the same 
care and frugality as she did those of the State, 
and had never indulged in the building of costly 
palaces, her private disbursement was very mod- 
erate. Her only extravagance was clothes and 
jewelry, but in the last years of her reign, she sold 
many of her jewels to pay the expenses of the 
State. 

This last Parliament opened with a heated de- 
bate on monopolies. Things' had come to such a 
pass that the holders of monopolies used their 
privileges in a way prejudicial to the interests of 
the people. Queen Elizabeth sent a gracious mes- 
sage to the House of Commons saying that she 
intended to redress all grievances by the exercise 
of her royal authority, for she was as indignant as 
Parliament itself at those abuses of which she had 
been unaware. 

This message of the Queen overwhelmed the 
House with gratitude and admiration. One mem- 
ber said, with tears in his eyes, that if a sentence 
of eternal happiness had been pronounced upon 
him, he could not have felt more joy than he at 
present experienced. Another remarked that 
" such a message from the sacred person of the 



274 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

Queen was" a kind of gospel or glad tidings, and 
ought to be written in the tablets of their hearts." 
The House voted that the Speaker with a deputa- 
tion of 140 members should ask permission to wait 
upon Her Majesty and give her their thanks for 
her gracious and extraordinary concessions. 

When the Speaker and the 140 members were ad- 
mitted to the Queen, they all fell on their knees 
before her, and remained in this attitude a long 
time until she desired them to rise. The Speaker 
expressed the unbounded gratitude of the Commons 
in eloquent language, declaring that " the attri- 
bute which was most proper to God, to perform 
all he promiseth, appertaineth also to her ; and that 
she was all truth, all constancy and all goodness." 
In conclusion he said, " Neither do we present our 
thanks in words or any outward sign, which can 
be no sufficient retribution for so great goodness ; 
but in all duty and thankfulness, prostrate at your 
feet, we present our most loyal and thankful hearts, 
and the last spirit of breath in our nostrils, to be 
poured out, to be breathed up for, your safety." 

Queen Elizabeth, after listening graciously to 
this eulogy, made a dignified and impressive ad- 
dress in reply expressing her satisfaction that the 
" harpies and horse-leeches," as she called the 
holders of monopolies, had been exposed to her. 

" I had rather," she said, " that my heart and 
hand should perish than either heart or hand should 
allow such privileges to monopolists as may be 
prejudicial to my people. The splendour of regal 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 275 

majesty has not so blinded mine eyes that licen- 
tious power should prevail with me more than jus- 
tice. The glory of the name of a King may deceive 
those Princes that know not how to rule, as gilded 
pills may deceive a sick patient. But I am none 
of those Princes. For I know that the Common- 
wealth is to be governed for the good and advan- 
tage of those that are committed to me, not of 
myself, to whom it is intrusted, and that an account 
is one day to be given to another judgement-seat. 
I think myself most happy that, by God's assist- 
ance, I have hitherto so prosperously governed the 
Commonwealth in all respects, and that I have 
such subjects that for their good I would willingly 
lose both Kingdom and life." 

This noble speech, expressive of her tenderness 
for her people, was received with great delight by 
the Commons. They granted the Queen an un- 
precedented supply of four subsidies and eight-fif- 
teenths; and that, too, before there was time to 
adjust the matter of monopolies'. 

In the beginning of 1602, Her Majesty's attend- 
ants noticed that she was rapidly failing in 
strength. She still kept up riding, hunting, and 
dancing, in which she excelled. She strove in 
every way to conceal her increasing ailments, and, 
although she suffered greatly with gout in her 
fingers' and hands, she was never heard to complain 
of her physical sufferings, but went on planning 
progresses and festivities with all the delight of 
earlier years. In the last year of her life she 



276 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

went a-maying at Mr. Buckley's and made several 
other visits, but in spite of her attempts to keep 
up her wonted gaiety, she grew gloomy and de- 
pressed. 

In a letter dated March 15th, 1602, William 
Camden, the historian, wrote to Sir Robert Cotton : 
" I know you are (as we all have been) in a mel- 
ancholy pensive cogitation. This avirvla or exces- 
sive sleepless indisposition of Her Majesty is now 
ceased, which, being joined with an inflammation 
from the breast upward, and her mind altogether 
averted from physic in this, her climaterical year, 
did more than terrify us all. . . . This' I thought 
good in generality to impart unto you that you 
may (as we do) put away fear, and thank God for 
this joyful recovery of her upon whose health and 
safety we all depend." 

In December, 1602, Harington wrote to his 
wife : " Our dear Queen, my Royal godmother, 
and this State's natural mother, doth now bear 
show of human infirmity, too fast for that evil 
which we shall get by her death, and too slow for 
that good which she shall get by her releasement 
from pains and misery. 

" I cannot blot from my memory's table the 
goodness of our Sovereign Lady to me, her af- 
fection to my mother, who waited in Privy Cham- 
ber, her bettering of my father's fortune (which I 
have, alas, so much worsted), her watchings over 
my youth, her liking to my free speech, and admi- 
ration of my little learning and poesy, which I 



QUEEN ELIZABETH ^77 

did so much cultivate on her command, have rooted 
such love, such dutiful remembrance of her princely 
virtues, that to turn askant from her condition, 
with tearless eyes, would foul and stain the spring 
and fount of gratitude." 

He goes on to speak of the last time he saw the 
Queen " in most pitiable state." She asked him if 
he had seen Tyrone. Upon his answering that he 
had seen him with the Lord Deputy (Essex) she 
said with anger and grief, " ' Oh, now it mindeth 
me you were the one who saw this man elsewhere,' 
and heareat she dropped a tear and smote her 
bosom. She held in her hand a golden cup which 
she often put to her lips, but, in sooth, her heart 
seemeth too full to lack more filling. . . . Her 
Majesty inquired of some matters which I had 
written, and, as she was pleased to note my fanciful 
brain, I was not unheedful to feed her humour and 
read some verses, whereat she smiled once and was 
pleased to say — ' When thou dost feel creeping 
time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee 
less; I am past my relish for such matters; thou 
seest my bodily meat doth not suit me well, I have 
eaten but one ill-tasted cake since yesternight.' 
She rated most grievously at noon at some one who 
minded not to bring up some matters of account. 
Several men have been sent to, and, when ready at 
hand. Her Highness hath dismissed in anger, but 
who, dearest Moll, shall say that ' Your Highness 
hath forgotten.' " 

Directly after this, Harington, in strange con- 



278 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

tradiction to the sentiments expressed in this let- 
ter, sent a dark lantern as a New Year's gift to 
King James. 

That Queen Elizabeth's mind was as vigourous 
as ever is attested by a long letter she wrote to 
James, dated January 5, 1603. Although the 
handwriting is hardly legible, the style is a char- 
acteristic utterance of her forcible, independent 
will. 

In January, she visited the Earl of Nottingham, 
the Lord Admiral.* He was a cousin of Anne 
Boleyn, and to him the Queen seemed to cling 
with affection and trust. 

About this time. Her Majesty moved her Court 
to Richmond. The inclemency of the weather in- 
creased her illness, but, regardless of this, and a 
severe cold she had contracted, she insisted upon 
removing to her Palace of Richmond on a windy 
and rainy day. On that day, she said to the Lord 
Admiral, who came to receive her orders concern- 
ing the removal, " My Throne hath been the 
Throne of Kings, neither ought any other than he 
that is my next heir to succeed me." 

Here at Richmond, which she called " the warm 
winter-box, to shelter her old age," she seemed to 
benefit by the change of air, and became cured of 
her cold. She attended prayers even more assid- 
uously now than she had done throughout her life. 

But at the end of February, Queen Elizabeth 
began to sicken again and her melancholy in- 
* Formerly Lord Howard of Effingham. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 279 

creased. The Coronation ring by which she had 
bound herself in marriage to the Realm, and which 
she had never taken off since that day, had now 
grown into the flesh, and she gave orders to have 
it filed off. This was regarded as a bad omen 
by many of the courtiers. 

Before this time there were hopes entertained 
of her recovery, according to the reports of the 
French Ambassador: " In the same proportion as 
Elizabeth is easily irritated she is also easily ap- 
peased, and may be won by a little. She appears 
to be naturally extremely polite and gracious . . . 
she is not only beloved but adored. Her 
strength, it is true, fails, and she suffers from 
pains in the bladder; yet she is restored to health 
for the present. A Spanish mathematician has cal- 
culated that she will pass her *75th year. Her eye 
is still lively ; she has good spirits, and is fond of 
life, for which reason she takes good care of her- 
self." On March 13th, 1603, he writes: "To 
my request for an audience, the Queen answered 
that I must excuse her for a few days, till after 
the mourning for the death of the Countess of 
Nottingham, for whom she has" shed many tears, 
and manifested great affliction." 

Queen Elizabeth had always had a marked aver- 
sion to medicine all her life, and the approach of 
death by no means abated this antipathy, for she 
persistently refused everything prescribed by her 
physicians. 

She would not go to bed, but lay upon the floor, 

\ 



280 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

propped up bj cushions, refusing food as well as 
medicine. 

Robert Carey, the son of her cousin. Lord Huns- 
don, who visited the Queen in her last sickness, 
writes, " When I came to Court, I found the Queen 
ill-disposed, and she kept her inner lodging; yet 
hearing of my arrival, she sent for me. I found 
her in one of her withdrawing chambers, sitting 
low upon her cushions. She called me to her; I 
kissed her hand and told her it was my chiefest 
happiness to see her in safety and in health, which 
I wished might long continue. She took me by 
the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, ' No, Robin, 
I am not well ; ' and then discoursed to me of her 
indisposition, and that her heart had been sad and 
heavy for ten or twelve days, and in her discourse 
she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs'. 
I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight, 
for in all my life time before I never saw her fetch 
a sigh, but when the Queen of Scots was beheaded. 
... I used the best words I could to persuade 
her from this melancholy humour, but I found it 
was too deep-rooted in her heart, and hardly to be 
removed. This' was upon a Saturday night, and 
she gave command that the great closet should be 
prepared for her to go to Chapel the next morning. 
The next day, all things being in readiness, we 
long expected her coming. 

" After eleven o'clock, one of the grooms came 
out, and bade make ready for the private closet, 
for she would not go to the great. There we 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 281 

stayed long for her coming; but at the last she 
had cushions laid for her in the Privy Chamber, 
hard by the closet door, and there she heard the 
service. From that day forward she grew worse 
and worse; she remained upon her cushions four 
days and nights at the least. All about her could 
not persuade her either to take any sustenance or 
to go to bed. ... I could not but think in what 
a wretched estate I should be left, most of 
my livelihood depending on her life. ... I did as- 
sure myself it was' neither unjust or unhonest for 
me to do for myself, if God at that time should call 
her to His mercy. Hereupon I wrote the King of 
Scots . . . and certified in what state Her Majesty 
was. I desired him not to stir from Edinburgh; 
if of that sickness she should die I would be the 
first man that should bring him news of it." 

On March 19th, de Beaumont, the French Am- 
bassador, writes his master that " Queen Elizabeth 
had been very much indisposed for the last four- 
teen days, having scarcely slept at all during that 
period, and eaten much less than usual, being 
seized with such a restlessness that, though she 
had no decided fever, she felt a great heat in her 
stomach and a continual thirst, which obliged her 
every moment to take something to abate it, and 
to prevent the phlegm with which she was some- 
times oppressed from choking her." 

Three days later, de Beaumont writes that 
" the Queen of England had been somewhat better 
the day before, but was that day worse, and so full 



282 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

of chagrin and so weary of life that notwithstand- 
ing all the entreaties of her Councillors and phy- 
sicians' for her to take the proper medicine and 
means necessary for her relief, she refused every- 
thing." 

The only relatives about Queen Elizabeth in 
these dark hours were Lady Scrope and her brother. 
Robert Carey, watching intently to be the first 
to hail James as King. Her death was already 
reported in England and on the Continent. 

" The Queen grew worse and worse," writes 
Carey, " because she would be so — none about 
her being able to persuade her to go to bed." 

On Wednesday Lord Admiral Nottingham, who 
was mourning his wife's recent death, was sent 
for as the person who' had most influence with the 
Queen; he was not only her nearest relative, but 
had been a faithful friend throughout her life. He 
came and knelt down beside her, as she lay upon 
the cushions', tenderly kissed her hands, and, with 
the tears coursing down his cheeks, implored her 
to take a little food. Finally, after many en- 
treaties, he induced her to take a little broth, 
which he, still kneeling by her side, fed to her with 
a spoon. But she long resisted his urgent plead- 
ings for her to go to bed, saying, " If he were in 
the habit of seeing such things in his bed, as she 
did when in hers, he would not persuade her as he 
did." And Secretary Cecil, overhearing her, 
asked if Her Majesty had seen any spirits; to 
which she said she scorned to answer him so idle 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 283 

a question. Then he told her how, to content the 
people, Her Majesty must go to bed. To which 
she smiled, wonderfully contemning him, saying 
that the word miist was not to be used to Princes ; 
and thereupon said, " Little man, little man, if 
your father lived, ye {he seems more probable) 
durst not have said so much; but thou knowest 
I must die, and that maketh thee so presumptu- 
ous." 

She then commanded the presuming Cecil and 
all but the Lord Admiral to leave the room. She 
said in a faint voice to her faithful kinsman, when 
all the rest had gone, " My Lord, I am tied with a 
chain of iron about my neck." When he reminded 
her of her accustomed fortitude, she replied sadly, 
" I am tied, I am tied, and the case is altered with 
me." At last, partly by entreaty, and partly by 
force, he got her to bed. 

That the Queen's forcible mind remained un- 
clouded to the very end is vouched for by many, 
and most, of the eye-witnesses of the final scene 
in that long and eventful life, although Secretary 
Cecil, to suit some purpose of his own, caused some 
reports of the opposite nature to be circulated. 
Says Lady Southwell, one of her maids of honour, 
" Though many reports, by Cecil's means, were 
spread of her distraction, neither myself nor any 
other lady about her could even perceive that her 
speeches, ever well applied, proceeded from a dis- 
tracted mind." 

De Beaumont's next report of the state of the 



S84 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

dying Monarch runs : " This morning the Queen's 
music has gone to her. I beheve she means to die 
as gaily as she Hved." In a later report, he says, 
" The Queen hastens to her end, and is given up by 
all her physicians. They have put her to bed 
almost by force, after she had sat upon cushions 
for ten days, and has rested barely an hour each 
day in her clothes." 

After she was undressed and placed in a more 
comfortable position she revived and asked for 
broth. There were now some hopes entertained 
of her recovery, but soon after this she became 
unable to speak. 

De Beaumont in his last report writes : " The 
Queen was given up three days ago; she had lain 
long in a cold sweat and had not spoken. A short 
time previously she said, ' I wish not to live any 
longer but desire to die.' Yesterday and the day 
before she began to rest, and found herself better, 
after having been greatly relieved by the burst- 
ing of a small swelling in the throat. She takes 
no medicine whatever and has only kept her bed 
two days ; before this she would on no account 
suffer it, for fear (as some suppose) of a prophecy 
that she should die in her bed; She is, moreover, 
said to be no longer in her right senses ; this, how- 
ever, is a mistake; she has only had some slight 
wanderings at intervals." 

Carey says she grew rapidly worse on Wednes- 
day, March SSrd. " That afternoon," he writes, 
" she made signs for her Council to be called, and 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 285 

by putting her hand to her head when the King 
of Scotland was named to succeed her, they all 
knew he was the man she desired should reign 
after her." 

An article in the Cottonian MSS. confirms 
Carey's statement. The Councillors asked her to 
make a sign at the name of him whom she wished 
tO' succeed her. When James' name was men- 
tioned, " suddenly heaving herself upwards in her 
bed, and pulling her arms out of bed, she held 
both her hands jointly together over her head in 
the manner of a crown." 

\ Another account states that when the Privy 
Council asked her to name her successor, she re- 
covered her power of speech sufficiently to an- 
swer with gasping breath, " I said that my throne 
was a throne of Kings and that I would not have 
any mean person succeed me." * Secretary Cecil 
asked her meaning, to which she replied, " I will 
that a king succeed me and who should that be 
but my nearest kinsman, the King of Scots." 
Then the Archbishop told her to fix her thoughts 
on God, " That I do," she answered, " neither doth 
my mind at all wander from him." And when she 
could no longer pray with her tongue, with her 
hands and eyes lifted up, she directed the thoughts 
of her pious heart to God. 

Lady Southwell, whose account diff'ers in many 
important points from those of others, writes: 
" The Queen now being given over by all, and at 
* Camden. 



286 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

the last gasp, keeping still her sense in everything 
and giving ever when she spoke apt answers, 
though she spake very seldom, having then a sore 
throat, she desired to wash it, that she might an- 
swer more freely to what the Council demanded; 
which was to know whom she would have for King ; 
but they, seeing her throat troubled her so much, 
desired her to hold up her finger when they 
named whom liked her. Whereupon they named 
the King of France, the King of Scotland, at 
which she never stirred. They named my Lord 
Beauchamp, whereto she said, ' I will have no 
rascal's' (commoner) son in my seat, but one 
worthy to be a King.' * Hereupon instantly she 
died." This report was dated in the afternoon 
of March 23d, but it is certain that she lived un- 
til the early hours of the next day. 
\ " About six at night (March 23)," writes Carey, 
" she made signs for the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury and her Chaplains to come to her. At which 
time I went in with them, and sat upon my knees, 
full of tears to see that heavy sight. Her Maj- 
esty lay upon her back, with one hand in the bed, 
and the other without. The Bishop kneeled down 
by her and examined her first of her faith ; and 
she so punctually answered all his several ques- 
tions by lifting up her eyes and holding up her 
hand, as it was a comfort to all the beholders. 
Then the good man told her plainly what she was 

* This referred to the claims of Lord Beauchamp, son of 
Catherine, sister to Lady Jane Grey. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH ^87 

and what she was' W come to, and though she had 
been long a great Queen here upon earth; yet 
shortly she was to yield an account of her steward- 
ship to the great King of Kings. After this he 
began to pray, and all that were by did answer 
him. After he had continued long in prayer, the 
old man's knees were weary; he blessed her and 
meant to rise and leave her. The Queen made a 
sign with her hand. My sister Scrope, knowing 
her meaning, told the Bishop the Queen desired 
he would pray still. He did so for a long half 
hour and then thought to leave her." But Queen 
Elizabeth, speechless and suffering, made a second 
sign for him to continue his prayer. " This he 
did for half an hour more with earnest cries to 
God for her soul's health, which he uttered with 
that fervency of spirit that the Queen, to all our 
sight, much rejoiced thereat and gave testimony 
to us* all of her Christian and comfortable end. 
By this time it grew late, and every one departed, 
all but the women who attended her." 
\ This account of Her Majesty's last hours is cor- 
roborated by a MS. in the Cottonian library. 
" She had several of her learned and pious Bishops 
frequently about her performing the last offices of 
religion with her, as particularly Watson, Bishop 
of Chichester, her Almoner, the Bishop of London, 
and chiefly Archbishop Whitgift, with whom in 
their prayers she very devoutly with her eyes, 
hands, and tongue and with very great fervency, 
joined. She cared not to have any other discourse 



£38 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

but with them about her spiritual estate, and 
though she was impatient of any speeches of others 
with her, yet she was ever well pleased to hear the 
Archbishop and the Bishop of London give her 
comfort and counsel to prepare herself Godward; 
and most heartily and devoutly prayed con- 
tinually with them, making signs and shows to 
her last remembrance of the sweet comfort she 
took in their presence and assistance, and the un- 
speakable joy she was going into." 

After the Archbishop had departed, the dying 
Queen, her little remaining strength exhausted by 
her devotions, sank into a deep, lethargic sleep 
from which she never awoke. So quietly and 
peacefully did the soul of great Elizabeth pass 
to that unknown world, that not one of those 
about her knew the moment of dissolution. About 
three in the morning, Thursday, March 24, it was 
discovered that she no longer breathed. Then 
swiftly and silently that vigilant spy, Lady 
Scrope, stole to one of the windows of the death 
chamber, and dropped a sapphire ring into the 
hands of her brother, Robert Carey, who was 
lurking about in the court-yard. This ring, 
known as the " blue ring," had been entrusted by 
the King of Scots to Lady Scrope as a certain 
token to announce to him the death of his Royal 
kinswoman. As Carey caught the gleaming 
circlet in his eager fingers, he knew that Eliza- 
beth, the illustrious and mighty Queen, was dead 
and that James of Scotland ruled over England. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 289 

Leaping upon his horse, he rode at breakneck 
speed to announce the tidings to the expectant 
heir. 

Carey, however, in his memoirs, gives a very 
different account of his proceedings on that gloomy 
March night. He states that after he left the 
Royal apartments, he returned to his lodgings, 
after leaving word in the Cofferer's chamber to 
summon him instantly when the Queen was actually 
dying. He gave an angel to the porter to admit 
him when he desired. Early Thursday morning, 
he was informed that Queen Elizabeth was dead. 
" I rose," he writes, " and made all the haste to the 
gate to get in. I was answered I could not enter 
— all the Lords of the Council having been there 
and commanded that none should go in or out but 
by warrant from them. At the very instant one of 
the Council, the Comptroller, asked if I were at 
the gate. I answered ' Yes,' and desired to know 
how the Queen did ; he answered, ' Pretty well.' 
I came up to the Cofferer's chamber where I found 
all the ladies weeping bitterly " — a pathetic 
tribute to the dead Majesty of England. 

It is possible to reconcile these two contradic- 
tory accounts of Carey's actions, by assuming 
that he did not remain long in his lodgings, but 
took up his stand under the Queen's window, and 
when the sapphire ring assured him that the lamp 
of life was extinguished in the room above, he 
then made the inquiries related in his memoirs, to 
render himself doubly sure that the Queen was 



290 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

really dead before he set out in frantic haste to 
hail her successor. 

Queen Elizabeth died in the seventieth year of 
her age, having reigned forty-four years and four 
months. Her successor said of her, " In wisdom 
and felicity of government she surpassed all Princes 
since the days of Augustus." 

In a Latin letter written after the day of her 
death, the author, who is supposed to have been 
one of her physicians, says : " It was after labour- 
ing for nearly three weeks under a morbid melan- 
choly which brought on stupor, not unmixed with 
some indication of a disordered fancy, that the 
Queen expired. During all this time, she could 
neither by reasoning, entreaties, or artifices be 
brought to make trial of any medical aid, and with 
difficulty was persuaded to receive sufficient nour- 
ishment to sustain nature, taking also very little 
sleep, and that not in bed, but on cushions, where 
she would sit whole days, motionless and sleepless, 
retaining, however, the vigour of her intellect to 
the last breath, though deprived for three days be- 
fore her death of the power of speech." 

Another contemporary writes : " No doubt you 
shall have heard Her Majesty's sickness and man- 
ner of death diversely reported, for everywhere 
Papists do tell strange stories as utterly void of 
truth as of all civil honesty or humanity. . . . 
Here was some whispering that her brain was some- 
what distempered, but there was no such matter, 
only she held an obstinate silence for the most part ; 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 291 

and because she had a persuasion that if she once 
lay down, she should never rise, she could not be 
got to go to bed in a whole week till three days 
before her death. . . . She made no will, neither 
gave anything away ; so that they which come after 
shall find a well-furnished jewel-house and rich 
wardrobe of more than two thousand gowns, with 
all else answerable." 

The date for Queen Elizabeth's impressive ob- 
sequies was set for April 28th. About this time, 
a Mr. Simon Thelwal writes to a friend of his: 
" There is very great preparations made and 
making for the Queen's Majesty's funeral, which is 
appointed to be performed on Thursday in Easter 
week next; and very shortly after, the King's 
Majesty will come to London." 
^ ." April 28th, being her funeral day, at which 
time the City of Westminster was surcharged with 
multitudes of all sorts of people in their streets, 
houses, windows, leads, and gutters that came to 
see the obsequy, and when they beheld her statue 
or picture lying upon the coffin set forth in her 
royal robes', having a crown upon her head thereof, 
and a ball and sceptre in either hand, there was 
such a general sighing, groaning, and weeping as 
the like hath not been seen or known in the memory 
of man; neither doth any history mention any 
people, time or state, to make like lamentation 
for the death of their Sovereign." * 

The Knight-marshals led the long and imposing 

*Stow's Annals. i 



29S QUEEN ELIZABETH 

procession which accompanied the body of Queen 
Ehzabeth from Whitehall to the Cathedral Church 
of Westminster. Following the Knight-marshals 
came in order: fifteen poor men and two hundred 
and sixty poor women, marching four by four, 
servants of the Knights, trumpeters, two sergeants- 
at-arms, the standard of the Dragon, two equer- 
ries, leading a horse trapped with black velvet, 
Royal messengers, children of the Royal household, 
grooms, four heralds, yeomen, servants of Earls 
and Countesses, four heralds, sergeants-at-arms, 
the standard of the Lion, two equerries leading an- 
other horse trapped in sombre black, gentlemen of 
the Royal Chapel in their sacerdotal cloaks, and 
with them the children of the Chapel, clad in their 
white surplices, and singing; after them clerks, 
more sergeants, musicians, apothecaries, surgeons, 
porters, gentlemen-ushers, the Rouge Dragon, 
clerks of the Privy Seal, Council, Signet, and Par- 
liament, Doctors, the Queen's Chaplains, Latin 
and French Secretaries, the Rouge Cross, chief offi- 
cers of the Mayor, Aldermen, Attorneys, the Lord 
Chief Justice, ex-Ambassadors, gentlemen of the 
Privy Chamber, Gentlemen Pensioners, carrying 
pole-axes with the heads downward and covered 
with black, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Robert 
Cecil, the Controller and Treasurer of the Royal 
household. Barons, Bishops, Earls' eldest sons. Vis- 
counts, Dukes' second sons. Earls, Marquises, the 
Bishop of Chichester, who was the Almoner and 
preacher at the funeral, the Archbishop of Canter- 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 293 

bury, the French Ambassador, four sergeants-at- 
arms, the great embroidered banner of England, 
borne by the Earl of Pembroke assisted by Lord 
Howard of EfRngham, the Norrey King-at-Arms, 
and the Clarenciaux King-at-Arms; this was Wil- 
liam Camden, the historian. After him came the 
lofty bier, bearing all that was mortal of Eng- 
land's Maiden Monarch. Upon the open funeral 
chariot, drawn by four horses, caparisoned in black 
velvet, rested the leaden cased coffin covered with 
a rich pall of purple velvet. On the coffin was 
the life-like effigy of Her Majesty's whole body, 
attired in her parliamentary robes, with the crown 
on her head and the sceptre in her hand. Six 
Knights supported a canopy over the bier, and on 
either side of the funeral car walked twelve Nobles, 
carrying bannerols, behind them came numerous 
footmen, and next the Earl of Worcester, the 
Master of the Horse, leading the palfrey of honour, 
trapped with sombre velvet, two esquires and a 
groom " to attend and lead him away " followed 
after, and then the gentlemen-ushers of the Privy 
Chamber, the Garter Knight-at-Arms and the 
Marchioness of Northampton, who was the chief 
mourner. She was assisted by the Lord Treasurer 
and the Lord Admiral, and her train was carried 
by two Countesses. She was followed by two 
Earls, fourteen Countesses, the ladies of honour. 
Viscountesses, Earls' daughters, Baronesses and 
the maids of honour of the Privy Chamber. The 
Captain of the Guard, with his men marching five 



294 QUEEN ELIZABETH 

by five, and carrying their halberds downward, 
concluded the solemn funeral cortege. 

The body of Queen Elizabeth was interred in 
Westminster Abbey, where James, her successor, 
erected a stately monument to her glorious memory. 
Her statue lies upon a slab of white marble, sup- 
ported by four lions, while above her rises a lofty 
canopy. Her head reposes upon cushions', heavily 
embroidered and tasseled, and her feet rest upon a 
recumbent lion. She wears no crown, but her 
tightly curled hair is covered by a royal cap, the 
sceptre which she holds in one hand has been broken 
off, and so has the cross rising from the globe 
which she holds' in the other. She is attired in 
her robes of State, lined with ermine, and wears the 
wide ruff and farthingale. 

On the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of 
James, Bishop Hall at Paul's Cross delivered an 
eloquent apostrophe to the memory of Queen Eliza- 
beth: 

" O blessed Queen ! Mother of this nation, 
nurse of this church, glor}^ of womanhood, envy 
and example of foreign nations, wonder of times, 
how sweet and sacred shall thy memory be to all 
posterity. How excellent were her masculine 
graces of learning, valour, wisdom, by which she 
might justly challenge to be Queen of men! . . . 
Why should I speak of her long and successful 
government, of her miraculous preservations, of 
her famous victories, of her excellent laws and her 
careful execution of them? Many daughters have 



QUEEN ELIZABETH 295 

done worthily, but thou surmountest them all. 
Such was the sweetness of her government and 
such fear of misery in her loss, that many worthy 
Christians desired their eyes might be closed be- 
fore hers. . . . Every one pointed to her white 
hairs and said with peaceable Leontius, ' When 
this snow melteth, there will be a flood.' " 

At her death, the poets and poetasters of the 
Realm vied with each other to express in elaborate 
verses the nation's grief. An extremely long 
panegyric composed by Lady Diana Primrose was 
entitled " A Chain of Pearls." Each pearl or 
stanza, was an eulogy on some virtue in the Sov- 
ereign. There were ten pearls in all in praise of 
Her Majesty's religion, chastity, temperance, clem- 
ency, justice, fortitude, science, patience, and 
bounty. The string of pearls ends' with the lines : 

" Here all amazed my muse sets up her rest, 
Adoring her who's so divinely blest." 

Many of these verses were hung up in numerous 
churches throughout the Kingdom. Conspicuous 
among them was " Britain's Lachrimae." * 

" Weep, little Isle, and for thy mistress' death. 
Swim in a double sea of brockish waters; 
Weep, little world, weep for great Elizabeth, 
Daughter of war, for Mars himself begat her, 
Mother of peace, for she bore the latter. 
She was and is, what can there more be said? 
On Earth the first, in Heaven the second Maid." 
* " Nichol's Progresses." 



DEC 15 1913 



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